McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Four goals each from
Josie Duey and
Jenna Hessel helped the Linfield Wildcats defeat the Whitworth Pirates in the first conference match for both teams on Saturday night at Maxwell Field.
Linfield picked up its first win of the season and is now 1-1 overall and 1-0 in Northwest Conference play, while the Pirates fell in their season opener to start the season 0-1.
Duey scored the first goal of the game for the Wildcats, who scored five of the first six goals of the match with Duey scoring two, she had five points in the match.
Linfield went into the halftime break leading 8-3 and flipped the goalies.
Kylee Duey made six saves in the first half and
Epi Roldan-Rayo stopped five in the second half. Madison Gotthardt was in the cage for Whitworth, she had eight saves.
Despite Linfield having the lead throughout the match, Whitworth kept it close throughout the match, pulling to within 11-7, but three-straight goals from
Courtney McGrath,
Jenna Hessel and
Maia Rezoski extended the lead for Linfield.
Leading scorer for the Pirates was Sidney Tripke with four goals and two assists in the match as well as four caused turnovers and two draw controls.
Hessel had five points in the match as well and so did Rezoski, who had three goals and two assists. Senior attacker
Molly Herrera had three goals in the match and an assist, while
Alex Jensen had a goal and two assists.
Freshman
Abby Ross took majority of the draw and came up with 10 draw controls, while Jensen won seven. The Wildcats picked up 33 ground balls compared to 30 for the Pirates.
Linfield was 13 for 24 in clears, while Whitworth was 12 for 25. Both teams missed all seven combined free-position shots. The Wildcats caused 12 turnovers in the game, Pirates caused 16.
This was the closest meeting between the Northwest Conference teams as Linfield took the first two meetings ever by an average margin of 15.5 goals a season ago.
UP NEXT
Linfield continues its five-match home stand to start the season taking on Whitman on Sunday at 1 p.m.
