Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Washington
No. 7 Deacons Shut Out Washington 1-0
9/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sep 6, 2013
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF)
By Alex Botoman, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWSoccer)
PORTLAND, Ore. - Katie Stengel scored directly from a corner kick to lead No. 7 Wake Forest to a 1-0 win over Washington in the first game of the Nike Portland Invitational on Friday at Merlo Field in Portland, Ore.
In one of the rarer plays in soccer, Stengel bent a corner from the left side directly on frame in the 11th minute. Washington goalkeeper Megan Kufeld failed in her attempt to punch the ball away, but it wouldn't have mattered - the ball was already across the line for Stengel's fourth score of the year.
"I think it's a great wins for us," said head coach Tony da Luz. "This is a really tough Washington team - they have a lot of tall players and play a great aerial game. For us to travel across the country, play an opponent like that and shut them out, I'm super proud of the kids."
Wake Forest (4-0-0) maintained its unblemished record to start the season and will go for the first perfect non-conference season in program history when it faces host No. 15 Portland on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Aubrey Bledsoe notched her second shutout of the season and the 27th of her career in net for Wake Forest, making four saves, including a key one on Washington's Lindsay Elston with less than ten minutes remaining.
After tallying their only goal on a set piece, the Demon Deacons fended off Husky side that that relied heavily on set pieces in the attack. The Deacon defenders did well to clear two Washington corner kicks in the waning minutes of the game.
"In the set pieces at the end, Caralee Keppler, Kim Marshall, Sarah Teegarden had some great clearing headers - I mean well out of the box - and that's the difference," said da Luz. "We've been talking about that yesterday in our training and improving in that, and they did a great job attacking the ball."
The Deacons will face a final non-conference test in their first true road game of the season on Sunday against Portland in front of the famed and raucous crowd at Merlo Field.
"We haven't had a 90-minute performance yet," said da Luz. "Against Portland, that has so much balance and really no weaknesses, we're going to have to be able to keep the ball and be dangerous."
