Oct. 10, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago women's soccer team continued their mid-season push today. They were led by two freshmen scoring their first career goals in a 2-0 victory over the visiting Lakeland College Muskies.

The game as a whole was dominated by the Cougars, with CUC outshooting the Muskies by a total of 19-4. The Cougars came out with a good focus and strong intensity on the day. Allison Kruk (Elgin, IL/St, Edward), Sarah LaCost (Mount Prospect, IL/Prospect) and Elizabeth Sanders (St. Louis, MO/Parkway South) got good looks on net in the opening minutes of the game, but it would remain scoreless.

Concordia-Chicago finally broke through in the 32^nd minute. It was Kahla Walker (Peoria, IL/Notre Dame) scoring her first career goal as a Cougar, putting the finishing touches on the goal just inside the right post. Alisha Johnson (Coal City, IL/H.S.) fed Walker a perfect cross into the box to give her the open look and give the Cougars the 1-0 lead.
The Cougars would get a few more good looks in the closing minutes of the first half but would head into halftime protecting the one-goal edge.

The home team wasted no time coming out of the locker room to get the second half started. In the 50^th minute, Johnson would take a corner kick for the Cougars that she would send sailing into the box, it would deflect off of Nikki Anderson (Montgomery, IL/Oswego) and land in perfect shooting position for Sydney Fuller (Elkhart, IN/Northridge). She would then put a perfect shot in the upper left corner of the net, also netting her first career goal as a Cougar, to double the Cougar lead.

The Cougars were able to play 25 different players in the match en route to the win. Ally Krajnak (Griffith, IN/H.S.) made four saves on the afternoon to keep the scoresheet clean for the Cougars, earning her second win on the year in net with late -game assistance from Maddie Kroll (Geneva, IL/H.S.).

"I think the group has come a long way," said CUC head coach Chris Brown  "The chemistry is good, I think the team understands that at any moment, a player can be asked to step up and perform, and today is another example of that."

When asked about what his team has to do to carry the momentum going forward in conference play, Brown would note, "We have continued to trust the process, and everything is ahead of us, We have to continue to put in the work, keep the right mindset, and keep trusting in what we are doing as a team."

The Cougars (4-8-0, 3-3-0 NACC) will finish off the weekend with a road trip to Iowa to face Simson College. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.