CRETE, Neb. – The Northwestern College women's soccer team (6-11-1, 3-8-1 GPAC) traveled to Crete, Neb. to take on the Tigers from Doane University (3-13-1, 1-10-1 GPAC) and came away with a 2-0 win to finish off Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) play.
The opening ten minutes of action saw both squads get their respective shot attempts off. In the 21
st minute a corner kick opportunity gave the Raiders a chance to organize a set piece. Senior
Audrey Leyen (Waterloo, Iowa/Gladbrook-Reinbeck) took the corner and sent the ball in. The original pass was defended by the Tigers but the defense was unable to get the ball cleared and a bouncing ball found the charging
Julie Dunlap (Jr., Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic). A well struck ball found the top portion of the net for a 1-0 Raider lead. The rest of the first half saw a majority of the shots come from the Tigers, but junior keeper
Kaelin Alons (Orange City, Iowa/Unity Christian) along with her defense kept the attacks at bay. The halftime lead belonged to the Raiders at 1-0.
The second half saw more back and forth action resulting in both teams creating shot opportunities. Two separate Doane corner attempts were defended by the Raiders and kept the score at 1-0. Just after the 75-minute mark Dunlap was in the middle of the action again, this time finding
Katie Jacob (Jr., Zimmerman, Minn./Zimmerman) for the second Raiders goal of the match giving Northwestern a 2-0 lead. This score would hold true for the final and a Raider win.
Alons had a strong performance in the net making 10 saves and not allowing the Tigers to find the back of the net. The Tigers out shot the Raiders for the game but the Raiders took advantage of the opportunities that they had.
This was the final game for the women's team this season as they are outside of the top eight in the GPAC standings and will not qualify for the conference tournament.
Shannon Andringa's squad won one more game than the previous season and tallied ten more goals showing a lot of promise for the seasons ahead.
