(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Soccer scored three first half goals on its way to a 4-0 victory over Menlo in the Sea Lions' PacWest opener.
Grace Nelson scored twice in the opening 45 minutes, with
Nikki Ross adding the other, before Point Loma benefitted from an own goal in the second half, as PLNU earned three points to kick off its conference campaign.
Nelson gave Point Loma the lead in the 17th minute, curling home a shot inside the near post from an
Alyssa Ketcham cross.
Gianna Masinter won the ball back for the Sea Lions inside their own half before spraying a ball out wide to Ketcham, who beat her defender to the byline and pulled it back to Nelson to finish first time.
Seven minutes later, Ross doubled PLNU's advantage with a left-footed shot from outside the box.
Maddie Khan intercepted a Menlo pass in a dangerous area and played it to
Priya Torres, who laid it off to Ross to score her team-leading third goal of the season.
Nelson then scored another in the 31st minute for her first career multi-goal game. Ross went on a surging run through the midfield and found right back
Jenna Bisset to play a first-time pass to
Emma Majors. Just moments after subbing on, the right winger dribbled past her defender and served a perfect cross for Nelson to volley home.
"We'll continue to look to get Grace forward when possible," Kiely said. "Grace and Ross are playing really well and really well together right now. I thought the wide players had great service and both keepers were calm on the ball to find the best option to get us going."
The Sea Lions then added a fourth in the 83rd, as Bisset's cross into a dangerous area was turned into the Oaks' own net.
Goalkeepers
Julia Pinnell and
Laine Moraes combined to keep the clean sheet, PLNU's fourth in its past five matches.
"Today we had a lot of the ball which helps you get clean sheets," Kiely said. "Our two keepers had to make a couple saves and show up in a couple of moments, which they did. Our field players also did a good job of keeping the ball and executing well."
Thursday's conference opener was the Sea Lions' first match in 11 days, but PLNU hardly skipped a beat in picking up its third straight victory.
"Originally in my scheduling I wanted to get a game in that 11-day stretch that I couldn't get, and then as it got closer I thought, 'You know this actually might work out quite well,'" Kiely said. "We needed to rest a little bit, and we needed to grow in some areas. You always get a little anxious when you haven't played in 11 days wondering how we were going to show up.
"To their credit, I thought the first five they were kind of on us a little bit and then after that we were able to get into stride and execute well. We had some tangibles, and we reached those maybe 30 minutes in."
Point Loma (4-2-1 overall, 1-0 PacWest) will have another break longer than a week between games before returning to action on Oct. 11 at Concordia. Kickoff in Irvine is scheduled for 4 p.m.
"Conference play is just different," Kiely said. "It doesn't matter who you are playing; everyone knows you. You have to be willing to make adjustments, which we did a little bit today and I thought we did that well.
"It was a lot of fun to get going on a bigger win and to score some goals. We obviously have a little bit of time again to prepare, and we'll need to do so because we have a tough next match."
POSTGAME INTERVIEW
