Oregon State women’s soccer opens season with win

The Oregon State women’s soccer team opened the 2008 season Friday night at 7pm in front of 329 fans. They took on Portland State and started the season off right with a 2-1 victory at Paul Lorenz Field. The Beavers can look forward to saying they are undefeated for the next week.

“I was really pleased with the effort from the entire team,” Linus Rhode told osubeavers.com. “Portland State gave us a strong match and I was proud of the way we responded. The defense did a great job of limiting their chances and our offense did a good job of creating some good scoring opportunities. Overall, it was a great start.”

Melissa Peck was the sultan of shots in the first half. She only tallied one goal but was on the ball every time fans turned around. She got Oregon State in front in the 28^th minute on a give-and-go from Courtney Wetzel. The solid shot flew over Portland State goalie Cris Lewis and into the back right corner of the net. It was one of two shots to make it by Lewis in the game. She finished the game with 12 saves

Portland State tried to advance the ball on multiple occasions but couldn’t seem to break the OSU defense led by Rachael Axim and Red Nixon. Nixon shined in the first game of the year with a handful of great stops, steals and even two shots on goal. One of which, from about 40 yards out, bounced off the top crossbar.

The second half brought more back and forth action between the both teams. Tempers began to flare when Najma Homidi was taken down from behind by the Portland State defense in the 60th minute. The Vikings ended up with two yellow cards in the game.

The take down resulted in a penalty kick. Rachel Axon connected on the shot on a quick-snap style kick just off the fingertips of the diving Lewis.

Portland State managed to cut the lead in half with a goal by Lauren Leale in the 75th minute.

Katie Bell, started in goal and shutout the Vikings in the first 45 minutes to pick up the victory. True freshman Colleen Boyd came in for the second half, made one save and gave up one goal.

The Beavers controlled the offensive side of the game with a 20-5 edge in shots.