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BILLINGS, Mont. – Three second half goals helped propel the Montana State Billings women's soccer team to a 4-1 victory over visiting University of Mary Monday afternoon at Yellowjacket Field. The Yellowjackets had four different goal scorers to help win the Eighth Annual MSUB Cup Presented by the Best Western Clock Tower Inn.

“I think today was another great win for us,” said head coach Don Trentham. “I was really happy with the way we rebounded after giving up a bad goal early. That says a lot to the character and determination of our team to continue to play after something like that happens early on. We just had to say patient and I knew the goals would come.”

The match started off poorly for the Jackets as the Marauders used a stiff wind to serve a free kick over the defense and into the 18 yard box from midfield. It was there that Megan Hellrung turned with ball and put it past a diving Jordan Fenwick (Boise, ID, Boise HS) to put Mary up 1-0 in the sixth minute.

Mary continued to keep pressure on the Jackets defense as the winds stayed steady throughout much of the half, but MSUB was able to catch a break just before the half. Senior, Samantha Sandau (Billings, MT, Billings West HS), found the head of a cutting Jennifer Brookshire (Ventura, CA, Buena HS) in the box as she was able to put in the upper right corner of the net with just 37 seconds remaining in the half. It was Brookshire's first career goal.

With the wind now to their backs, the Yellowjackets exploded offensively in the second half. After a few opportunities early on, Sandau again struck, this time scoring a goal on a one-timer off the foot of Kari Foreman (Lakewood, CO, Bear Creek HS) from Heidi Greenback (Woodinville, WA, Woodinville HS) in the 70^th minute. The goal was Sandau's first of the season.

The Yellowjackets again found the back of the net four minutes later as Whitney Siler (Monroe, WA, Monroe HS) took a deflected ball and fed it right to Jennifer Larsen (Mesa, AZ, Mountain View HS) in front of the net. The senior then snuck the ball past Ashley Akers to give MSUB a 3-1 lead.

MSUB put the match away for good in the 79^th minute as Kari Foreman corralled a free ball outside of the 18 and fired the ball into the upper right corner for her first goal of the year.

Defensively, after allowing six total shots in the first half, MSUB held Mary without a shot in the second half. The Yellowjackets also allowed just one corner kick in the match and only faced two shots on goal.

“We looked organized again today on defense minus the one bad goal,” continued Trentham. “The whole weekend we played well and didn't make many mistakes. We had quality minutes from our back four.”

Freshman, Sabrina Grandke-Bawab (Kirkland, WA, Juanita HS), recorded her first collegiate victory after coming into the match at halftime. Grandke-Bawab was never tested but made big plays with her goal kicks and punts out of the box.

With the win the Yellowjackets improved to 2-0-0 to start the 2010 season. It's the first such start to a season since 2007 when the team also started 2-0-0. The Marauders drop to 1-2-0 on the year with the loss.

For the weekend, Sandau was named tournament Most Valuable Player after collecting a goal and two assists in MSUB's two wins.

“We're very fortunate to have six quality seniors that can step up and this weekend it was Sammy,” Trentham said. “She had a great weekend and played very well during the minutes she was in.”