Pacific Lutheran University Athletics

SALEM, Ore. — Two goals in the opening 12 minutes set the stage for a road blowout as the nine-time defending Northwest Conference Champion Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team returned to the win column with a 5-1 thrashing of host Willamette University on Sunday.

Kami Novotny drew first blood, scoring the game's opening goal in the fifth minute off a pass from Taylor Thomas. It's Novotny's second goal in as many games after collecting her first career score on Wednesday against University of Puget Sound.
 
Kyleigh Archer doubled the Lute lead in the 12th minute, finding the back of the net off a feed from Novotny while Zoe Markquart scored unassisted in the 44th minute as visiting PLU (4-2-2, 2-1-1 NWC) enjoyed a 3-0 lead at the halftime intermission.

Archer struck again in the 52nd minute with Novotny collecting her second helper of the match. The host Bearcats (3-3, 1-3 NWC) got on the board in the 52nd minute but PLu answered with Abby Manolovitz scoring her second goal of the year in the 80th minute with Tia Schwetz providing the assist.

"We're really proud of the team today, we asked them to take a big step forward in our season today. We kind of challenged them a little bit. Who are we? What are we going to be? What are we doing here? We have an opportunity to take a big step forward, let's start fast. Let's score early. And they did all that," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl.
 
"Kami had a great day and made a huge impact. Kyleigh had two goals, Zoe had an important third goal before halftime, and Manolovitz had a good goal to really seal it. So we asked them to get off to a fast start and they did. 
 
Zoe had a good week of training so I'm proud of her for putting the training into practice and scoring. After the fourth goal and then we faced some adversity, Willamette fought hard and scored right away after we scored, and that's something we've got to look at is not conceding (a goal) once we score so early."

Pacific Lutheran outshot Willamette 11-3 in the opening half and finished the contest with a 14-5 advantage in total shots. 

Emily Meigs made her first career start in goal, securing the win after making three saves and logging all 90 minutes between the pipes. 

"This group has potential if we work and we continue to push hard because we're still not where we want to be. Special shout out to Emily, who got her first college start and stepped in and did a great job. Overall, everyone got on the field and it was a good day and we're excited to keep working and getting better, and looking forward to coming back down here next weekend."

The Lutes will repack their suitcases next week, returning to Oregon on Saturday for a showdown with Lewis & Clark College on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. in Portland.