Whitworth women fall 1-0 to Puget Sound

Full INWsn photo gallery [+]

After a three-game win streak to move atop the Northwest Conference table, the Whitworth women dropped their second straight game by a 1-0 score Saturday against visiting Puget Sound.

The Pirates were knocking on the door early in the contest Saturday against the Loggers with two near scores in the first half.

Twenty-two minutes into the contest Tiara Pajimola fired a shot from about 20 yards out on the left side that smacked off the upper corner of the frame.

About a minute after Hannah Langbehn made a great individual effort to stop a breakaway at the edge of the box at the other end, Whitworth nearly broke the stalemate in the 35th. Brooke Morrow took the ball deep into the right side of the box and beat a defender along the end line, allowing her to slip a ball into the six for an awaiting Pajimola. The striker's well-paced effort away from the keeper, however, found the face a defender, who made the goal-line stop.

"I think we had moments of brilliance, and then we had moments where we weren't so good," said Whitworth Head Coach Jael Hagerott. "I think part of that is also due to UPS and the pressure they can apply on the field. We weren't used to that, I would say, consistently. There were times in other games where we were able to get the ball settled and we weren't able to that today, and that flustered us a little bit.

"We just got to keep pushing forward and have positive expectation on the field."

The visitors then had a pair of good shots from Amelia Acorda-Fey (pictured above, center). She fired a 19-yard effort right at goalkeeper Andrea Stump in the 37th.

About a minute later Acorda-Fey drove 20 yards up the midfield before shooting from the edge of the box directly to Stump, who made four saves on the day.

With seven minutes left in the half the Pirates almost snuck one in when a lengthy free kick from about 45 yards by Hannah Bokma (Spokane, WA - pictured above, left) nearly floated into the upper left corner, but Lauren Thomas, who made five saves in the shutout, reached up and snatched it at the last moment.

Five minutes into the second half, the Loggers broke through the Pirates defense. A pass from Grayson Williams-Krebs on the left side in toward Lura Morton (Moscow, ID) was dummied by Morton, surprising everyone in the area as it rolled through and into the back of the net.

"The goal was unfortunate to give up. It was a dummy in front of goal that we weren't quite expecting.

"We hit the crossbar and we had another one that they saved off the line. If those go in, now you're up 2-0 and the game changes that way. I think it really depends on which way (those chances go) - it was an excellent block by their player; I don't know how they did that."

From there the visitors continually disrupted Whitworth as the Pirates attempted to move the ball into the offensive third, and nearly locked up the victory when Williams-Krebs nearly scored a second. She unleashed a shot from the top of the box in the 58th minute that rang off the crossbar.

On Sunday, Whitworth's scoring woes continued as Pacific Lutheran moved to 4-1-1 with a 2-0 victory on a pair of goals in the second half, handing the Pirates their third consecutive defeat.

-- INWsn --