Box Score

BELLINGHAM (Oct. 25) -- The Central Washington University women's soccer team kept nationally-ranked Western Washington University scoreless for the first 70 minutes, but the host Vikings scored the game's only goal at the 71st minute and held on to defeat the Wildcats, 1-0, on Thursday afternoon at Orca Field on the Whatcom Community College campus.

CWU, which suffered its fifth 1-0 loss of the season, was eliminated from post-season contention after falling to 4-8-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play and 5-10-2 overall. Western Washington, meanwhile, earned its 10th consecutive shutout victory, improving to 15-2-0 overall and clinching the GNAC regular-season title (12-1-0) with one game remaining.

"It was a good performance in a lot of ways," CWU head coach Michael Farrand said, "but we gave up a goal that we probably shouldn't have. We did some good things in stretches, even right before they scored the goal, but just didn't attack like we needed to today."

The Wildcats kept the Vikings in check throughout the first half despite an 11-1 shot disadvantage at halftime. Sophomore goalkeeper Kayla Lipston (Federal Way/Decatur HS) made four of her five saves in the opening 45 minutes, and then kept out the Vikings' first on-goal attempt of the second half less than a minute in, but Catherine Miles recovered a misplayed ball by the CWU defense and scored the game's lone tally on the final on-goal attempt of the contest.

CWU was only credited with two shot attempts in the game -- an on-goal try by sophomore Savanna Moorehouse (Bonney Lake) with just over a minute left in the first half, and an attempt by sophomore Hadli Farrand (Ellensburg) that was blocked at the 65th minute by the WWU defense.

Aside from the shot disparity, the two teams were pretty even statistically. Each team had three corner kicks, while CWU was whistled for 10 fouls to the Vikings' seven.

CWU will return home for its final game of the 2012 campaign on Saturday (Oct. 27), taking on Simon Fraser University at 1 p.m. Four Wildcat seniors will be recognized prior to the contest.