CHENEY, WASH. - The Eastern Washington University women's soccer team played host to Arkansas State today (Aug. 21) at the EWU Soccer Field and dropped the decision to 1-0 in its home-opening battle. The Red Wolves took an early advantage after scoring in the 11th minute.

"In terms of a loss, the scoreboard looks a little bit better, but losing is still losing and that's difficult and frustrating. In terms of the overall performance of the team, we did a lot more right today and had a much better start. At the end of the day, we really just made one mistake at the back, and we were aware of that player – she's an extremely talented player for Arkansas State and it was a miscommunication from our back line," said head coach Missy Strasburg on today's lone goal. "We have a smart group and I have really enjoyed them. We've called this a basic install. We've only been together for about 15 days now. We've laid the foundation of what we're looking for and now we're finally in a place where we can add a couple new layers of sophistication and ideas as we move forward. Our players are bought in and we're looking forward to this stretch where we can go back and train and develop and add some fitness."

The Eastern Eagles headed into the match with high intensity, firing off the first shot of the match, which would come from senior Taylor Matheny just outside the 18-yard box in the seventh minute. However, two minutes later, senior goalkeeper Kelsee Winston was called to action as she would make the first save of the match in the ninth minute. Still, the Red Wolves held high pressure on the EWU's backline as they would slot one past Winston in the 11th minute.

The goal came from a diagonal run by ASU's forward Sarah Sodoma who split the Eagle center backs and placed the ball just inside the right post.

As the Eagles regained possession following the goal, they continued to battled through the first half. As the match approached halftime, Winston was called upon once more to make a spectacular upper seven save from a shot 25 yards out. With the ball headed straight to the upper corner, Winston reached out for a diving save, keeping the Eagle squad alive.

As the second half began, Winston would come up with another early save, this time by ASU forward Aliyah Williamson. However, EWU would respond with a shot by senior forward Sariah Keister who beamed the ball at the net, forcing ASU goalkeeper Megan McClure to come up with a save.

With the full 90 minutes approaching, Winston would make two more crucial saves, scooping up a ground shot for the first and stretching her gloves to the right post for the other.

The Eagles chased to find an equalizing goal, but Arkansas State mounted their ground, and by the final whistle, the match ended in a 1-0 deficit for Eastern Washington.

WIN-LOSS RECORDS: EWU moves to 0-2 overall while ASU improves to 1-0-1. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Eastern Washington took three shots with one on goal. The Eagles collected seven total saves and took four corner kicks.

Arkansas State took 16 total shots with eight on target and recorded one save while taking five corner kicks.

UP NEXT: Eastern Washington hits the road to face Washington State next Sunday, Aug. 29 at 1 p.m. Pacific time in Pullman, Wash. Live stats will be available on Statbroadcast.com and the game will be streamed on the WSU Live Stream network.