Saint Martin’s women's soccer ends season on high note with home win over CWU Wildcats 

Saint Martin's University women’s soccer team can hold their chins up high in their last match of the season held on November 9 at Saints Field, as they beat the winless Central Washington University Wildcats in a 2-1 affair at home. 

Goals from Eve Charles and Allysa Carapia sealed the first home win for the Saints this season and just their third overall and their second over the bottom-of-the-league CWU to finish the season in style. 

The scoring was opened just under six minutes from kickoff, as Charles started a solo run in the right flank and dazzled her defenders before producing a rocket just near the edge of the penalty box to the near post beating the hapless Wildcats keeper to take the early lead. 

The rain dampened some of the chances for both teams as both struggled to take hold of each other's midfield, but the Saints retained the lone goal lead right before halftime.  

After getting the better of possession early in the second half, the Wildcats equalized after a botched counterattack caught the Saints defense sleeping, good enough for Central Washington’s Shannah Mellick to catch the keeper away from her line and chip the ball past her from 40 yards out to make it 1-1 at the 65th minute.  

Adamant to end the season with a win, the Saints turned up the gear on offense knocking closer to the winner, and they found it finally at the 82nd minute near the death from an unlikely source. It was senior defender Allysa Carapia who became the hero for the Saints, finding herself unmarked in an advanced position on the box and receiving a deflected low cross from right back Taylor Copeland and squeezed the ball past the opposite keeper to win it for the Saints with her first goal this season. 

First-choice goalkeeper Flavia Burrell and her junior understudy Mallory Patzer shared responsibilities as the guardian between the gates, with each having a half of action in goal, but it was Patzer who was the busier one as she had two huge saves in the second half, including a last ditch effort in the 84th minute to deny the visitors of the spoiling equalizer and secure all three points for the Saints. 

The Saints finished the season second last of the conference with a 3-8-3 win-loss-draw record in the GNAC, amounting to 12 points, which they also share with Northwest Nazarene but were just outranked by several wins. This is an improvement from the dismal bottom-of-the-table finish in the 2023 season after getting only one win and six draws. Apart from the double against the Wildcats, notable performances from the Saints this season include an upset win over the #3 seed and last year’s regular season champions Seattle Pacific away from home, and a 3-3 draw with #2 seed Simon Fraser. 

Western Washington University were the regular season champs, finishing with an invincible 11-0-3 record, while they will be joined by Simon Fraser, Seattle Pacific, and Western Oregon in the GNAC playoffs.