NEWBERG, Ore. – The Whitman College women's soccer team wasn't short in scoring chances Sunday afternoon, but the visiting Missionaries weren't able to finish off a dominating outing and suffered a 2-0 loss to host George Fox University in Northwest Conference action at the Austin Sports Complex.
Whitman (6-4-2, 4-2-2 NWC) racked up a 20-3 shots advantage over the Bruins (2-7-3, 2-5-1) including a 9-3 edge in shots on goal. A pair of George Fox goals on consecutive shots three minutes apart in the second half turned the tide in what proved to be a frustrating game for the Missionaries' attack.
Bruins goalkeeper Ally Swanson was exposed to relentless pressure from early on in the first half. Whitman generated three shots on frame between the 12th and 17th minutes that required Swanson saves before George Fox could generate its first shot of the afternoon in the 25th.
The Missionaries pounded out five more shots before the intermission, two requiring Swanson stops and a third blocked by a Bruins defender saving Swanson from an even heavier workload.
Whitman failed to allow the frustrating half from slowing its attack as second-half play opened with five more shots in the 17 minutes immediately following the halftime break. Swanson registered saves on two of those opportunities while the other three were off the mark wide of the posts or just over the crossbar.
The game turned on consecutive shots from the home team, beginning with a free kick chance from outside the box that George Fox's Brette Dodson curled inside the frame at the 66:51 mark for an improbable lead.
Not even three minutes later the Bruins added to their lead with a shot from Hannah Harder that snuck past a leaping
Haley Case into the top right corner, pushing the Whitman deficit to two in the 69th minute.
The swarming Missionaries attack resumed following Harder's tally. Over the final 16 minutes Whitman generated six more shots with two resulting in Swanson's eighth and ninth saves of the game.
Whitman will try to rebound from its first two-game losing streak of the season when it travels to Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, Wednesday afternoon to take on a visiting Pirates team it defeated, 2-1, in the conference opener for both teams back on September 13.
