Box Score

ELLENSBURG (Oct. 14) -- Senior Amber Easterbrook (Kent/Kentwood) made a season-high eight saves, but the Central Washington women's soccer team was unable to score on 14 shot attempts in falling 2-0 to visiting Western Washington in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action on Wednesday afternoon.

The loss dropped the host Wildcats to 5-8-1 overall and 2-4-1 in GNAC play, and was the third consecutive 2-0 score Central has been involved with. Western holds onto its lead in the GNAC standings by improving to 8-4-2 overall and 5-1-1 in conference action.

Easterbrook made six of her eight saves in the second half, when Western Washington outshot the Wildcats 11-5 and scored both of its goals. The two teams played to a deadlocked 0-0 tie in the first half after Central dominated offensively with a 9-4 shots advantage and a 3-0 edge in corner kicks prior to the intermission. However, the closest the Wildcats got to the goal aside from their three shots on goal in the period was a shot attempt by junior Kaycie Hutchins (Port Orchard/Bellarmine Prep) that hit the crossbar at the 35th minute.

Western Washington broke the shutout less than eight minutes into the second half as Molly Shannon scored off a Viking corner kick. Emily Frankland added an insurance tally for WWU 16 minutes later, notching her team-leading sixth goal of the season on a breakaway to give Western a 2-0 lead.

Central had the next two shot attempts after Frankland's goal, but neither made it on goal, while Western had the final three shots of the match including two that were saved by Easterbrook in the final seven minutes.

The Wildcats were outshot by a 15-14 margin after Western Washington's offensive second half, and Central's Easterbrook finished with eight saves to Kylie Broadbent's three for the Vikings. CWU had a 4-3 edge in corner kicks for the match but were whistled for 11 fouls to Western's four including a 7-1 margin in the second half.

Offensively, junior Ellie Eckroth (Auburn/Auburn Mountainview) and sophomore Brittany Franks (Yakima/West Valley) had three shot attempts each to lead the Wildcats. Frankland and Shannon shared team-leading honors for shots for Western Washington.

Central Washington wraps up its season-long four-match home stand on Saturday (Oct. 17) with its first matchup of the season against an improved Saint Martin's squad at 11 a.m. The Wildcats will then play three of their final four matches away from home, with their home finale coming on Oct. 31 against fourth-ranked Seattle Pacific.