LONGVIEW, Texas – Behind a six-save shutout by junior goalkeeper Mari Zeitlow, the LeTourneau University women's soccer team picked up a 2-0 home win over Schreiner University in their 2018 season opener at the LETU Soccer Field in Longview, Texas on Friday, August 31st.
 
With the victory, LETU improves to 1-0 on the season after earning their third-straight season opening victory and fourth consecutive win over the Mountaineers who fall to 0-1 on the year.
 
"We're very happy with the win to start the season as the team played well and battled throughout the game against a very good Schreiner team" said head coach John Antonisse in a post-match interview. "Overall, we're really pleased and are ready to get back out on the pitch tomorrow for our match against McMurry."
 
Very little time would be wasted by the YellowJackets to find their first goal of the season as a penalty kick would be drew by junior Kelli Sonnier which would allow for freshman Reagan Sandford to step up and send the ball into the back of the net to give LeTourneau a 1-0 lead just six minutes into the game. Things would slow down until the end of the first half as Zeitlow would be given the task of making two saves for the YellowJackets to keep the score 1-0 in favor of LeTourneau at the break.
 
Carrying their 1-0 lead into the early parts of the second half, LETU would barrage the Schreiner goalkeeper with four shots in the first 12 minutes of the half before finally breaking through on a ball sent into the box by Madison Urbana that would be headed home by Rebekah Stevenson for her first goal of the season to make the score 2-0 and give the YellowJackets some breathing room. LeTourneau would continue to press the issue and keep pressure on the Mountaineers by adding two more shots and a corner kick before the SU would make an offensive push in the final minutes. Zeitlow would stay strong however between the pipes, turning away back-to-back shots with just over five minutes remaining and make one final save at the 87:22 mark to finish with a clean sheet.
 
Final stats saw the YellowJackets outshoot the Mountaineers by a mark of 11-6 while taking a 3-1 advantage on corner kicks. Sandford and senior Keely Hayden would wind up being the only two players to take more than one shot in the contest as each would fire off three shots with two shots on goal.
 
What's Next?
An American Southwest Conference foe waits in the balance for the YellowJackets as the War Hawks of McMurry will come to Longview for a 7 p.m. contest tomorrow evening at the LETU soccer field. McMurry opened their season on Friday with a game at Austin College, which was still in progress at the time of this release. Saturday night's game will not count towards ASC standings as the two teams will meet again in Longview for a conference matchup on Thursday, September 20th.