Saints seal first win of the season, spoils Central Washington's party, 1-0 

Saint Martin’s University women’s soccer team finally found the winning column in this soccer season in a hard-fought 1-0 win over Central Washington University at their pitch in the CWU Field in Ellensburg, Washington, last Saturday afternoon, September 28. 

After a frustrating start of the season where they lost all their five preseason matches and their opening conference fixture at Southwest Oregon, the Saints finally found form and grabbed their well-deserved three points, thanks to the match’s lone goal from Brazilian attacking midfielder Inara Lopez de Andrade in the first half. 

With both squads seeking their first points, the match started tightly as both sides exchanged attempts of their own. The Saints had early chances in under 15 minutes from efforts from Hinata Kojima and Nora Melcher just stretching wide while CWU’s Emily Darcy had a chance of her own but just went off target. 

The breakthrough from the Saints came in the 27th minute. Receiving the ball from a throw-in in the left flank, midfielder Ravyn Mummey belts a perfectly timed through ball to an overlapping Andrade as the Brazilian speedster left her marker to cut inside the penalty box and strike the ball into the back of the net, 1-0, as if the opposing keeper was not there.  

The Wildcats tried to equalize later in the half but failed due to some goalkeeping heroics by Flavia Burrell saving two attempts in goal before the halftime whistle. 

Leading with a goal, the Saints turned up the attacking in search of the insurance goal, thanks to Brianna Yamada controlling the midfield as they outshot the hosts with nine attempts to three just in the second half. Hinata and Melcher led the attack with their four attempts each the whole game, while the best chances of the hosts trying to equalize were all from corner kicks. 

In the final minutes of the match, SMU defender Payton Aselton secured the game for the visiting Saints with a heroic defensive header to clear a CWU attempt that sealed, not just the win, but a clean sheet too for Burrell. 

The Saints will hit the road again and head to Bellingham for their next match against Western Washington on Thursday, October 3. They will open their home campaign in SMU Soccer Field on October 10 against Seattle Pacific University.