Great Lakes Wire

The Northern Michigan University (NMU) women's soccer team secured a victory against Roosevelt with a 3-0 shutout, marking a successful start to their senior weekend. All three goals were scored in the first half within a 12-minute span.

"Being able to finish from service was really good to see, that was something we worked on in practice this week," said Jon Sandoval, head coach of the Wildcats. His record at home now stands at 31-3-7. "I thought we controlled most of the tempo from the run of play, got to a lot of first and second balls, and a huge positive to get a lot of minutes for a lot of players ahead of Sunday's match."

Justina L'Esperance assisted on the game-winning goal before scoring herself later in the first half. Kenna Alexander recorded her first career goal for NMU with assistance from L'Esperance. Sami Brown also achieved her first career goal for NMU from an Allison Kroll cross.

Sally Patton started as goalkeeper and made one save during the match. Sydney Lake took over in the second half as NMU secured its seventh clean sheet this season.

The Wildcats dominated by outshooting Roosevelt 31-4, with 15 shots on target compared to one for their opponents.

Looking ahead, NMU will honor its 13 seniors in an upcoming match against Pride on Sunday.

In detail, during the first half Brooke Pietila attempted an early shot following Molly Pistorius's pass. At 17 minutes into play, Justina L'Esperance had her shot saved by Roxana Herrera. Calihan Bearden's header also required another save from Herrera shortly after.

L'Esperance set up Kenna Alexander's goal with a header in minute 25 and scored herself four minutes later with another well-placed header into the low left corner. Sami Brown completed scoring before halftime with her own header off Allison Kroll’s cross.