TACOMA, Wash. --- The Pacific Lutheran Women's Soccer team hosted their first home match of the 2024 season on Friday, earning a 2-2 draw against the Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Hannah Cecil and Kayden Hulquist teamed up for the two Lutes scores.
 
The Athenas took control early on in the contest, firing four shots within the first 10 minutes but two missed the target and two earned saves for sophomore goalkeeper Abby Winkler. CMS continued to apply the pressure, allowing just one shot from senior Hannah Cecil before the Athenas struck first in the 19^th minute. The Athenas score came on a corner kick that found the head of Lutes defender Katelyn McDougal and ended up in the back of the net.
 
Senior Julia Causbie began to fight back and fired a pair of shots that were blocked by the CMS defense. The Lutes held off a late push from the Athenas to take a 1-0 deficit into the half.
 
The Lutes offense found their stride coming out of the break, as senior Kayden Hulquist intercepted a CMS pass back to the keeper and found the lower left corner of the goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the 49^th minute.
 
Senior Hannah Cecil and the Lutes offense continued to apply the pressure after tying the game up. Cecil found the net after receiving a pass from Causbie and beating the defender to give the Lutes a 2-1 lead in the second half.
 
PLU's lead lasted less than two minutes as the Athenas shot from the top of the box took a ricochet off the top bar and into the goal. With 30 minutes to play the game was tied once again at 2-2.
 
CMS ripped four more shots over the next 20 minutes, but each were saved by Winkler to keep the game level. Cecil fired two consecutive shots that were blocked by the defense before they could get to the goalkeeper. The final 10 minutes saw numerous shots from each team, with Winkler making a huge diving save in the 85^th minute to save the game. The score remained tied as the clock hit zeros, and ended the game in a 2-2 tie.  

"Claremont is an outstanding team, I'm very impressed with their style of play and their players; they are a very good program. I would consider them a top-25 program based on who we've played so far. They were a very good opponent for us, we struggled in the first half and we're still not recovered yet from Baltimore, it was a long trip. No excuses but we are physically not at our best right now, which makes our second half performance much more impressive."

"I'm so proud of the kids they showed great character, great grit, and really came out and had a strong first 15-20 minutes. They came out strong and got us the lead in the second half, which we had to hold on a bit at the end. Overall, I'm very happy with the result because Claremont is a good team and we had to battle back at the end. I'm really proud of the kids and how tough they were. We had to dig deep tonight and I was just very proud of how the team responded in the second half. We have to finish up with another top-25 opponent tomorrow in Case Western, so it's a very challenging preseason but this is great preparation for our conference play. Go Lutes!"
 
The Lutes halved the 22 shots the Athenas took as they had 11 attempts. Of the 11 attempts, four of which were on goal for the Lutes while Claremont had 12 on-target. Cecil took seven of the Lutes 11 total shots, with two on-target. Causbie and Hulquist split one shot a piece, with Hulquist's finding the back of the net. Lutes goalkeeper, Abby Winkler, made 11 total saves in the contest with a few earning a SportsCenter top-ten bid to keep the game knotted.
 
The Lutes round out their week at home tomorrow afternoon at 6 p.m. against No.16 ranked Case Western Reserve on East Field.
 
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