SAN DIEGO - The Point Loma women's soccer team kept up the trend of not losing back-to-back matches during coach Kristi Kiely's tenure as they bounced back with a 2-1 win over Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, Sept. 21.
 
The match was scoreless through halftime until Sarah Steinhaus found Julia Glaser on a through-ball in the 54th minute. The pass put Glaser in a sprint to the ball against the Nighthawks' goalkeeper. Glaser won the footrace by two steps and poked the ball into the net for her second goal of the season.
 
Rachel Carrell provided a critical insurance goal, which ended up being the game-winning goal, in the 81st minute. The score was again set up on a great pass from Steinhaus when she found Carrell in space on the left side. Instead of dribbling into the crowd, Carrell took what the defense gave her and shot an angled shot from just outside the 18-yard box. Her shot went over the defense and curved perfectly into the top right corner of the net for the 2-0 lead.
 
NNU would then go into scramble mode and managed to get one of the goals back with 18 seconds remaining on the clock. Northwest Nazarene would attempt one more run in the final seconds, but the attack was thwarted by the Sea Lions' defense, and PLNU held on to put another one in the win column.
 
Emma Hinson had two saves for Point Loma, and Alexis Montoya made seven for the Nighthawks.
 
Team Records
Point Loma (3-2-0, 0-0-0 PacWest), Northwest Nazarene (3-3-0, 0-0-0 GNAC)
 
Words from Coach Kiely
On bouncing back from Thursday: "It is always hard on a Saturday to get a win. The hardest part about our sport at the college level is a lot of games in a short amount of time. I was proud of our women for making it happen. We didn't have a great start, but in the second half they responded well. We will take the progress we made from this and move forward towards conference play."
 
On Sarah Steinhaus' performance: "What a beautiful ball Sarah played to Jules for our first goal! I thought Sarah was very effective today. The credit goes to her for being in a completely new position and having limited time to learn it. She has done well. She has been the most consistent player in the office asking for film and feedback. She is trying to take the lessons and apply them. She is learning, growing and getting better every day. It is fun to see. I am so pumped for her."
 
On Northwest Nazarene: "First I appreciate all the teams that were here. There were a lot of good games and some good soccer along the way. Everyone was fighting the whole game, and no lead ever felt safe. I appreciate SPU and NNU for traveling all the way down."
 
On the lessons from today's match: "We have a lot to take from our preseason. We have ebbed and flowed, and obviously we'd like to be more consistent. The positive thing is we have made progress each game, and we'd like to learn from all five games we've had and apply that to conference play. A bit of that is adversity and that we are getting a lot of chances around the goal and not finishing."
 
Scoring Summary
53:39 - PLNU GOAL: Julia Glaser (Sarah Steinhaus) [PLNU 1, NNU 0]
81:00 - PLNU GOAL: Rachel Carrell (Sarah Steinhaus) [PLNU 2, NNU 0]
89:41 - NNU GOAL: Maddy Parton (McKenzie Buell) [PLNU 2, NNU 1]
 
News and Notes
> Point Loma's last two home wins have both featured goals by Glaser and Carrell
> This was the first career start for Chloe Kim
> PLNU remains perfect in the all-time series against NNU (3-0-0)
 
Next match
The Point Loma women's soccer team will be back in action next Thursday, Sept. 26 when they travel to Azusa Pacific for a non-conference matchup. The game will begin at 7 p.m.