Braedan Willis, Vikes Communications

VICTORIA-  The University of Victoria Vikes women's soccer team defeated the Lethbridge Pronghorns by a score of 1-0 on Sept.15 at Centennial Stadium in Victoria. With the victory the Vikes improve to a record of 2-3-0 in the Pacific Division, while the Pronghorns drop to 0-4-0 on the season.

Rachel Baird scored the lone goal of the game, while fourth-year keeper Puck Louwes nabbed her first shutout of the season.

"We played a lot better today," said Vikes head coach Tracy David. "We worked on our wide game, which generated more opportunities and shots for us."

Lethbridge's Hanna Quinn earned her first start of the season and was also the game's MVP after standing tall  and making a total of eight saves on the night. 

"It was probably one of our more offensive games," said Lethbridge co-head coach Isla Wong, after he team dropped their fourth-straight game. "We haven't scored yet and we need to score. Today our players took their opportunities to move the ball forward. I thought we could have done it more but it was an entertaining game." 

This Canada West match saw a high amount of offence as the teams had a combined 38 shots, 16 of which made it on goal. Victoria generated 25 shots, but only nine were on target, relative to the Horns' 13 shots with seven on goal. 

"I think we knew that yesterday we lacked in our offensive chances against Calgary," added David, whose team dominated the opening half yesterday but couldn't score. "Today we saw our team respond to that." 

The Vikes opened the scoring early with a goal coming off the head of  Baird. Aishy Shinomura's corner kick in the 14^thminute was placed perfectly for Baird to place the ball into top corner, giving the Vikes an early 1-0 lead. Victoria had a couple of other great scoring opportunities throughout the first half, including chances for Kiara Kibley, Georgia Bignold and Shinomura. 

Despite going down early, Pronghorns goalkeeper Quinn kept her team in it, making three saves in the opening half.  Lethbrdige's Erica Augsten led her team offensively with three first-half shots. 

Quinn continued her strong play into the second half as the Vikes continued to pressure the Pronghorns in search of their second goal of the match. Vike Shinomura had the best opportunity in the 65^thminute. The second year used her speed to beat to blow past the Pronghorns back line and have just Quinn to beat but her shot was challenged well.  

Baird had back-to-back scoring chances in the 79^thminute. Quinn was up to the task on Baird's first attempt and the other skipped off the outside of the far post leaving the game 1-0 in favour of Victoria.

Victoria's next game will be on Sept. 21 when they host the Thompson Rivers WolfPack. Lethbridge will travel east to Winnipeg to play the Manitoba Bisons on Sept. 22. All games can be watched live at canadawest.tv.

SCORING SUMMARY
            1          2:         F
LET:      0         0:         0
VIC:      1         0:         1
 
GAME MVPs

LET: #1 Hanna Quinn

VIC: #19 Rachel Baird