BALTIMORE, Md. --- The Pacific Lutheran Women's Soccer team opened the 2024 season on the east coast as they upset No.17 Johns Hopkins, 3-2. Olivia Boehm's pair of early scores help lift the Lutes to 1-0 on the season.
 
The Lutes offense wasted no time kicking off the 2024 season on a high note. Junior midfielder/forward Olivia Boehm made her first career start on Friday, scoring on a deep shot attempt from outside the box to put the Lutes up 1-0 less than five minutes into the season.
 
40 seconds later, Boehm finds a loose ball deep in Blue Jays territory and scored on a shot to the upper left portion of the goal. The Bellingham, Wash. native appears to be the new answer for the Lutes newly opened forward position.
 
Over the next 24 minutes of play, the Blue Jays offense would wake up after going down 2-0 early at home. Johns Hopkins attempted the next six shots with two of which being on-target and earning junior goalkeeper Abby Winkler a pair of saves. In the 29^th minute, the Jays would get on the board after Winkler's save rebounded to the feet of Hopkins, leaving an open net; 2-1 Lutes.
 
The Blue Jays continued to apply pressure with a pair of shots missing wide. Senior Hannah Cecil picked up where she left off in the 2023 season as she scores off of a pass from senior Kayden Hulquist; extending the Lutes lead back to two. With regained momentum, the Lutes took the 3-1 lead into half time.
 
The two squads traded blows coming out of the break, as Winkler made a save, followed by a Cecil shot missing just high. Over the course of a five-minute span, the Blue Jays took five shots, with two of them earning a save from Winkler. Shortly after, the Jays broke through to make it a 3-2 game in the 70^th minute.
 
Senior Julia Causbie responded with a shot in the 76^th minute that was saved by the Jays goalkeeper. Three more shot attempts from Johns Hopkins missed in a last-ditch effort to knot the game, giving the Lutes their first win of the season over nationally ranked No.17 Johns Hopkins.
 
The Lutes only attempted five shots to the Blue Jays 25, but it was Winkler's 11 saves that kept the Lutes on top. Boehm and Cecil recorded two shots each, with Causbie adding one on-target.

"I'm super proud of this team, we come out here to play in these big-time college soccer environments and we didn't shy away with Johns Hopkins in game one. They're very talented team with All-Americans and players that have won National Championships. Obviously, a top team in their conference, their area and just a big time college soccer event tonight." Said Head Coach Seth Spidahl.

"We knew we weren't going to have the ball a lot, but we were opportunistic. Olivia Bohm with two good finishes right away, but obviously that's a great way to start. Great goalkeeping by Abby Winkler, she was outstanding today. We hung in there and we got an opportunistic third goal from Hannah. What I'm most proud of is, we talk about gold metal grit and just working through things and being a little tougher and fighting through situations; and they did that today. [I'm] super proud of them and you know we've got to recover and we have another top-25 opponent tomorrow in McDaniel. We know that's going to be a tough game but we are going to enjoy the win today cause it was a good one and a big time win for our program. I love the potential of the team this year. Go Lutes!"
 
The Lutes look to knock off another ranked opponent tomorrow afternoon against No.25 McDaniel College in Baltimore, Md. at 4 p.m. (ET).
 
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