MILWAUKEE, Wis. - A 21 minute window provided more than enough offensive output on Wednesday for the Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team, prevailing 2-0 over host Milwaukee School of Engineering in the 2021 fall season opener. 
 
Vera Panescu-Reich punched in the opening goal of the 2021 campaign just over four minutes into the contest off a helper from Ellie Reardon. Reardon would be instrumental in the Lutes' insurance score just 16 minutes later, finding Kimber Thomas who scored in the 21st minute as PLU (1-0) cruised to the shutout win over the host Raiders (0-1). 

"Overall we're very happy with our first steps," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl. "It's been a long time since we played for real. We're very proud of our players, they showed some amazing maturity for their first game out of the blocks."
 
The Lutes outgunned MSOE by a 17-3 margin, including an impressive 11-0 edge in shots on goal. Pacific Lutheran additionally collected nine of the 11 corner kicks taken in the dominating win. 
 
Eva Wirth made her Lute debut in style in goal, logging all 90 minutes for her first career clean sheet.

"The real positive is we have so much to improve on and the potential for this team is very high. We have lots of work to do but the character this group has displayed so far has been awesome."
 
The Lutes close out their opening road swing on Friday, facing Concordia University at 4 p.m. (Central) on Friday in Mequon, Wisconsin. 

"We'll remain humble about this step as we play a very good Concordia team on Friday but we will take two good goals and a shutout for step one of the season."