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ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Montana State Billings women's soccer squad rebounded from Thursday's loss with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe, Central Washington, Saturday morning in Ellensburg.
“This was a great road win for us today,” said head coach Don Trentham. “We keep digging holes for ourselves by giving up the first goal, but we've done a great job to just keep battling and finding ways to score goals this season. We played very well in the second half today and earned a great result today.”
With the win, the Yellowjackets improve to 4-1-1 on the year and are now 1-1 in league play. The Wildcats remain winless on the year (0-5-1) and are 0-2 in the league.
The Yellowjackets again found themselves playing from behind when CWU's Kaycie Hutchins scored her second goal of the season in the 35
th minute. Hutchins took a pass from Ellie Eckroth in the box, and after beating a defender, fired a shot from 12 yards out past MSUB goalkeeper,
Sabrina Grandke-Bawab (Kirkland, WA, Juanita HS).
The equalizer for the Jackets came after Grandke-Bawab made a save on a shot by Amy Pate then punted the ball over the entire Wildcat defense. Sophmore
Jennifer Larsen (Mesa, AZ, Mountain View HS) was able to sneak in behind the defense and took the ball off the bounce then fired a shot from 15 yards out into the upper right corner of the goal.
It was Larsen's team-leading fourth goal of the season and Grandke-Bawab's first career assist.
The Yellowjackets continued to press the Wildcats defense, taking numerous shots and getting opportunities off corner kicks. The hard work again paid off for the Jackets in the 77th minute.
Jaucelyn Richter (Billings, MT, Billings Senior HS) fed the ball to
Carly Valentine (Vancouver, WA, Skyview HS) who took a shot that bounced off the cross bar and landed at the feet of
Kari Foreman (Lakewood, CO, Bear Creek HS). Foreman had an open net and tapped the ball in for her second goal of the season. Valentine and Richter recorded their first assists of the season on the play.
The Yellowjacket defense stepped up toward the end of the match, blocking a pair of shots by the Wildcats to help preserve the win.
Grandke-Bawab picked up her second win of the season to improve to 2-0-1 on the year. She made two saves after facing 10 total shots, three on goal, and had the assist.
Taking the loss for CWU was C.J. Balstad. Her record fell to 0-2-2 on the year after allowing the two goals on 9 shots, eight on goal.
The Yellowjackets will continue play on the road next week when they travel to GNAC newcomer, Simon Fraser, on Thursday, Sept. 23. Kickoff for that match is set for 5 p.m. local time. The Jackets will then travel down the road to Bellingham, Wash. for a 1 p.m. kickoff with Western Washington on Saturday, Sept. 25.
