TACOMA, Wash. – The Puget Sound women's soccer team dominated possession and every statistical category except for saves for 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon on the way to a 2-0 Northwest Conference women's soccer win over Pacific Lutheran at Baker Stadium.
The Loggers (11-3-2 overall, 9-2-2 NWC) took over first place in the Northwest Conference standings with the win. Pacific Lutheran (4-11 overall, 3-10 NWC) dropped into eighth place in the conference standings with the defeat, its 27th in a row to the Loggers dating back to 1998.
Abby Goss put the Loggers on the board at the 21:02 mark of the first half with what proved to be the winning goal. Christine Isabella had possession just outside the penalty box and tapped the ball over to Goss, who fired a shot from about 25 yards out. Her shot was slightly deflected by a defender and past Lutes keeper Lauren Chambard, who appeared to have the shot covered to her right before the deflection moved the ball back to her left.
The Lutes had only one shot in the first half, turning a counter attack in the 22nd minute into Mimi Granlund's well-struck drive that found the right side netting.
Chambard made 10 saves in the match, including two spectacular diving efforts in the first half, to keep her team in the game. With her team down 1-0 already, she lunged to her left to parry Annie Jonsson's goal-bound drive around her left post.
In the second half, the Loggers earned seven corner kicks to total 12 in the match. On one of those corners taken by Kylie Beeson, the Loggers padded their lead to 2-0 when Christina Isabella rose above the defense to head the ball over Chambard and into the back of the net. The goal came 61:18 into the match.
Chambard made one more highlight-reel save with about 10 minutes left, diving to her right to deflect away Jenny Moore's blast.
PLU's best scoring opportunity came with about 15 minutes remaining when Granlund lofted a perfect pass into space behind the Puget Sound defense. Karli Hurlbut beat Kara Merfeld to the ball and chipped it over the prone UPS keeper, but instead of rolling into the goal the ball frustratingtly found the right post.
That was as close as the Lutes came all day to scoring as they were out-shot, 22-4, including 12 shots on goal for the Loggers to none for the Lutes. Puget Sound also had 12 corner kicks to none for PLU.
Pacific Lutheran has three matches remaining this season, including their final home contest at noon on Saturday when the Pacific University Boxers visit the Parkland campus.
- PLU -
