CMS Women's Soccer Defeats Illinois Wesleyan 2-0 to Clinch Undefeated Weekend

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- The CMS Women's Soccer team completed an undefeated opening weekend after a 2-0 victory over Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday night at Pritzlaff Field.

The Athenas, fresh on the heels of a 6-0 victory over JWU Denver yesterday on the opening day of the season, were looking to start the season off on the right foot with two wins in two days. The Athenas scored early and tallied a late goal to hold off the Titans 2-0.

The Athenas move to 2-0 on the early season and the Titans fall to 0-2 in the early going of the campaign. CMS applied early pressure with shots by Sarah Tocher and Nicole Oberlag around the 10-minute mark of the opening half. Oberlag would then get on the scoreboard with a nice one-timer off a feed from Tocher, going top-shelf to give the Athenas a 1-0 lead at the 17:15 mark of the first half.

Illinois Wesleyan did not record its first shot until over halfway through the opening half a bid that sailed high of goalkeeper Cam Hamson by Rachel White at the 20:37 mark of the first period. Hamson was tested for the first time on a shot by Megan O'Neal at 24:49 in the opening stanza and came up with the save. Illinois Wesleyan continued to put on the pressure with its third consecutive shot, once again by O'Neal, this time sailing high of the goalmouth. 

In the second half, the Athenas began to see the field tilt toward their end as they outshot the Titans 7-3 and Sara Catherine Ueland pounced on an opportunity with a goal off an assist by Rhiann Holman to extend the lead to 2-0 at the 75:05 mark of the second half. Holman sent a cross through the top of the penalty area to the far side, where Ueland was able to cut a one-timer back across the front of the net and inside the near post from 15 yards out to stretch the CMS to 2-0. 

For the final 15-plus minutes the Athenas and Titans were locked in a back-and-forth battle with Illinois Wesleyan looking to get on the scoreboard. The Athenas came close to tallying the third goal when Kira Favakeh rang a shot off the right post at the 82:28 mark, and the Titans were unable to find that scoring touch on this night as the Athenas preserved a 2-0 lead on their second shutout of the season. 

Tocher spoke after the victory. "It's a great team win. We knew coming in it would be a great competition. We both played the day before so we knew there would be tired legs. I think we really relied on the depth of our bench. A lot of people came in, got important minutes in. It feels great, we've been through two weeks of preseason doing two-a-days. It's just the first step, we have big goals this season, and this is step one." 

CMS is back in action against Pacific Lutheran on Friday, Sep. 6 at 7 p.m. at Pritzlaff Field. Then CMS hits the road to UC Santa Cruz for its first big road trip of the season on Sunday, Sep. 8.