The Portland State women’s soccer team won their game against Eastern Washington 1-0 in Cheney, Wash., on Friday and came from behind in double-overtime for a 2-2 draw against Montana in Missoula, Mont. on Sunday in two Big Sky conference regular season away games.
The Portland State women’s soccer team won their game against Eastern Washington 1-0 in Cheney, Wash., on Friday and came from behind in double-overtime for a 2-2 draw against Montana in Missoula, Mont. on Sunday in two Big Sky conference regular season away games.
With these results, Portland State improves to 6-6-1 overall this season. So far, the Vikings have won two and drawn one game in the conference. With seven points from three games, the Vikings currently lead the Big Sky table along with Weber State.
“Seven points in three games, all on the road and drastically changing travel arrangements, is a great start,” Head coach Laura Schott said.
With the win against Eastern Washington, Schott recorded her 30th win as Portland State’s head coach and became the most successful coach in the school’s history.
Senior forward Kala Renard scored the lone goal against Eastern Washington while junior forward Megan Martin added two more goals to her season’s tally against Montana. Martin now has six goals and one assist this season. Junior goalkeeper Lainey Hulsizer started both games.
In their first game of the conference, the Vikings narrowly edged past Sacramento State 3-2 in Sacramento, Calif., with Martin scoring all three goals. This was Martin’s first hat trick with PSU.
Fridays win was PSU’s first at Eastern Washington since 2002. Schott said in a statement released by the athletics department, “We haven’t won at Eastern Washington in a long time so I’m very proud of our athletes for getting the win.”
On Friday, the Vikings dominated Eastern Washington in the first half. The Viks had 11 attempts on goal in the first period compared to just one shot by the Eagles. However, the Vikings failed to take advantage of these chances and went into the break with the score knotted at 0-0.
However in the second half, Renard scored her first goal of the season in the 76th minute to give Portland State a 1-0 lead, which the Viks maintained till the end of the game. Schott was satisfied with the overall work from the team.
“Our performance was okay; obviously the result on the road was good,” Schott said. “Eastern Washington is always a tough place to play so we were happy to get out of Cheney with a win.”
Against Montana on Sunday, the Viks found themselves two goals behind in the first half. Portland State conceded two goals in the 22nd and the 43rd minute before going into the break. The Vikings were outshot 7-8 by the Grizzlies in the first half.
However in the second half, Portland State responded with eight attempts on the Montana goal. Martin scored two goals in two minutes (55th and 56th) to level the score 2-2. The game then went into double overtime, but the scored remained the same.
“We put ourselves in a hole early but played very well in the second half to pull out the tie,” Schott said. “Defensively we have a few things to iron out, but over all we played solidly.”
Against Montana, Martin also scored her fifth goal in the conference this season and sixth overall. She currently leads the race for the Big Sky Golden Boot, awarded to the conferences top goal scorer.
Schott feels that the team needs to capitalize on their momentum, and take advantage of their chances earlier in the game.
“The next step I’d like to see us take is putting games away early by putting teams under immense pressure,“ Schott said. “Sometimes slow starts lead to games becoming more difficult than they need to be. We need to take and keep the momentum.”
Next up for the Vikings are two home games against Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona at the Hillsboro Stadium this weekend. Northern Colorado is tied for third in the conference with a 2-1 record, while Northern Arizona has a 1-1-1 record and is tied for fifth place.
“I’m looking forward to some good home games next week,” Schott said.
