CLAREMONT, Calif. - An early goal proved to be the difference maker on Friday night at Pritzlaff Field with the Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team coming up short 1-0 against host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges to open the Lutes' weekend in southern California.

The Athenas' Rhiann Holman provided the decisive score, heading the ball into the back of the net on a corner kick taken from Kira Favakeh in the sixth minute. The early strike ended up being the only fireworks of the night with host CMS holding on for the win.

CMS held a 7-3 edge in shots in the opening stanza but the tide shifted in the second half with PLU taking six of the nine shots fired in the final 45 minutes, including Jami Hughes coming off the bench and ripping a shot off the crossbar in the 71st minute. Maddie Landreth mustered two shots on target while Sarah Burns, Ellie Johnson, Tasha Tennyson, and Ashlee Gormley all put shots on the goalmouth but Athena keeper Cam Hamson stymied all six shots for the shutout victory.

"It's unfortunate to give up an early goal, that's never how we want to start, especially away from home, but Claremont's a good team, they beat Illinois Wesleyan the No. 18 team in the country last week," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl. "They dropped off on us, which was different, usually teams high press and we had to be playmakers and our center backs had to really make the game. I felt like we made some good adjustments in the second half and really took it to them. The ball was in their end and we had some corners. We had one-on-ones with the keeper and hit the crossbar so we created enough chances to get a goal it just didn't happen tonight. But were getting better."

Lute keeper Cassidy Crosswhite logged three saves on the afternoon, logging all 90 minutes between the posts.

Pacific Lutheran closes out its California trip tomorrow night, squaring off against the University of Redlands at 7 p.m.

"I didn't design a preseason for it to be easy for the team, I designed it to push the team outside their comfort zone. We're 1-1-1 and that's really where we want to be. We have to stay positive through adversity but that's what the team is doing and we want to finish up tomorrow with positive performance against Redlands and then rest up for conference play."