CHENEY, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University soccer team hosted Northern Arizona today (Oct. 20) to a 2-0 win on the EWU Soccer Field. The Eagles set a program record fourth-straight shutout after today, having out-scored their last four opponents 9-0.

With the win, the Eagles also qualified for their sixth-straight Big Sky Conference Tournament berth. Additionally, Kelsee Winston turned in her 13th clean sheet of her career to set a new program records in career shutouts.

"Northern Arizona is one of the best teams in this conference and they threw everything at us today," said associate head coach Pete Showler. "They went with four forwards and we dealt with it. Kelsee Winston led our backline and our backline push and went from there. It was a team effort and everyone put it great work. Our players are believing in themselves and our system and we're playing good soccer. We're fighting for each other and our four clean sheets shows our grit and determination."

EWU's goalkeeper Kelsee Winston saw action early in the match following a shot in the eighth minute from NAU's senior Mei-Te Coco. The Eagles responded with four shots including a rocket from junior Taylor Matheny that slammed against the post in the 15^th minute.

The first goal for Eastern came in the 20^th minute after Matheny caught the deflection from a shot by Riley Walkington that was blocked by a Lumberjack defender. Matheny used only one touch to boot the ball into the back of net as the Eagles went ahead 1-0.

Eastern scored its second goal of the match shortly after with an assist to Sariah Keister from Matheny. As the ball was served in, Keister got her toe under it to chip the keeper and place the ball in the bottom right corner. The goal came in the 29^th minute as Keister scored her six goal of the season.

As the halftime whistle blew, the Eagles lead 2-0 over the Lumberjacks.

EWU began the second-half with some intensity as Brooke Dunbar found an opportunity to score but her shot sailed high over the crossbar. Keister had two shot attempts in the 52^nd and 53^rd minute but NAU's goalkeeper Taryn Benham saved them both.

The Lumberjacks attempted to gain momentum with five total shots on target in the second half, but Winston was there with the saves.

As the referee blew the final whistle, the Eastern Eagles defeated their fourth-straight Big Sky Conference opponent, 2-0, and have qualified for the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

This is the sixth-straight season the Eagles have qualified for the conference tournament, all under head coach Chad Bodnar. The tournament runs from Nov. 6-10, 2019 in Greeley, Colo.

Win-Loss Record

The Eagles move to 8-5-2 overall and have an unbeaten conference record of 5-0-1 while the Lumberjacks fall to 7-7-2 overall with a 3-3-1 conference record. The all-time series record moves to 9-13-2 as the Eagles have won their last three matches against NAU and are 5-2-1 under Chad Bodnar.

Key Stats

EWU outshot NAU 11-10 but only had five shots on target versus six for the Lumberjacks. Eastern had five different players take at least one shot and had only one corner kick to NAU's two.

Top Performances

Taylor Matheny scored one goal and had an assist to Sariah Keister who scored one goal as well. Matheny has scored two goals this season and Keister has now scored six. Brooke Dunbar and Riley Walkington each took two shots and Mya Elder-Hammond recorded one shot.

Goalkeeper Kelsee Winston made six saves during the match and recorded her fourth-straight shutout, 13^th of her career. She has passed Tiera Como's previous record of 12 and now has the most career shutouts in EWU history.  

Notables

Winston has four-straight shutouts and has spent 386:07 total minutes in the net since allowing a goal.

Winston has recorded the most shutouts in a career in program history with 13.

The Eagles have qualified for the Big Sky Conference Tournament for the six-straight year in a row.

Eastern is undefeated in conference play with a record of 5-0-1.

The Eagles have a six-game unbeaten conference streak which is second longest in EWU history and a five game winning streak which is also second longest program history.

What's Next

The Eagles travel to Portland, Ore., on Oct. 25 to face Portland State at 3 p.m. Pacific time. After the match, Eastern heads to Sacramento State on Oct. 27 to face Sacramento State at 12 p.m. PT for its final regular season road match.