On a windy afternoon at the Lakeland soccer fields, the Muskie women's soccer team started their season on a good note with a 1-0 victory over the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Scarlet Hawks. Sophomore Laura Engel scored the second goal of her career in the 63rd minute to lift the Muskies over the Hawks.

"It felt really good since it was a right foot shot," said Engel. "I haven't been using my right foot since I fractured it last year so it was pretty exciting to be able to do."

After a scoreless first half, where it appeared the team was trying to figure each other out, the Muskies came out dominating the second half. Thirteen of the 18 total shots for the Muskies came in the final 45 minutes, while the team played with much better ball control.

Alli Weiss, the junior goalkeeper for the Muskies, stopped all six of the shots put on goal by the Hawks. While senior Briana Plautz did a great job organizing a defense that saw two freshmen starting.

"I was very pleased with the game as a whole," said head coach Marc Colwell. "We still have some players out with injuries. Defensively I thought our women did a great job and was very impressed with that."

The Muskies travel to Marietta Ohio for the 2005 Marietta Cup Classic this weekend before returning home to face Augustana College at 1:00pm on Saturday, September 10.