SAN DIEGO - Everyone wearing Green & Gold had a little pep in their step today with the return of Kaiti Freeberg, and it showed on the field as the junior posted a pair of assists and Cori Deason scored two goals to lead the Point Loma women's soccer team to a 3-0 victory over Academy of Art on Thursday, Oct. 6.
 
The Sea Lions (5-2-3, 3-1-1 PacWest) have now won back-to-back matches, and are undefeated in their last four matches. The victory today moved PLNU into first place in the PacWest standings, one point ahead of both BYU-Hawaii and Fresno Pacific. The loss dropped the Urban Knights to 1-8-1 on the season, and to 1-3-1 in the PacWest.
 
It was a dominating performance for Point Loma on both sides of the ball. Cori Deason scored goals in the 24th and 73rd minutes, and Abbey Teagle added another in the 79th minute. Deason's first goal came off a nice pass from Freeberg after she took the ball deep into the box and laid it off to Deason for the score. Later in the second half, Rachel Witz crossed the ball to an open Deason of the far side of the field, and she beat her defender to the middle and rocketed a shot into the net for the score. That second goal gave Deason a share of the PacWest lead with six goals this season.  
 
"(Cori) is an athlete, she is fast and she puts it in the net, so that always gives the team hope because she can bury one for you," said Point Loma head coach Tim Hall, "but she has a good cast around her that makes it possible."
 
Teagle's goal was the first of her career and came on another nice assist from Freeberg. This capped off one of the best offensive days of the season for PLNU, which outshot ARTU 21-4, including 12-0 on shots on goal.
 
"We felt like we possessed the ball well and by doing that we were able to take some of the pressure off our defense," explained Hall. "We had productivity from everyone that played, so it was a very good team effort and I am very pleased with what we did with the ball to create chances."
 
"Kaiti (Freeberg) is a smart player that really helps us with her game intelligence," Hall added. "She came up and made some very good passes and set up the other players well. Not only is she a good technical player but she does a great job involving other girls by the way she thinks about the game."
 
Ariel Oriarte did not have to make a save for Point Loma en route to recording her third straight shutout, and sixth of the season.
 
It will be less than 48 hours until the Sea Lions' next match when it hosts Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 2:00 p.m.
 
"I think the women prefer the short turnaround," said Hall. "When you don't play for a few days you get antsy. We are in play-mode now so the short turnaround is better for us mentally. Now the bodies on the other hand are usually a different story but we feel we came out of today okay so the turnaround shouldn't be too bad."