CHENEY, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's soccer team welcomed CSU Bakersfield to the EWU Soccer Field today (Sept. 5) and conquered the match to a 5-0 victory. The Eagles have been in search for their first win of the season and they found it, with two consecutive goals from Sariah Keister and one from Mya Elder-Hammond in the first half, plus one from Taylor Matheny and one from Anessa Campos in the second.

"I feel happy for the players, it's not about me, I've been doing this for 12 years and winning is just part of what we do, it's our end goal and it's fun," said Missy Strasburg on her first career win as head coach at Eastern Washington. "I'm happy for the team. We've played a beast of a non-conference schedule so it was important for their confidence today to get out and score goals and have the mentality to win games."

Sariah Keister, making her 66th appearance for the Eagles, created the perfect chance to take the lead early in the match when redshirt junior Brittany Delridge served a brilliant ball to the head of Keister in the ninth minute. Fueled with confidence, Keister received another ball that led her onto goal just eight minutes later to double the lead. As important as these two goals were for the Eagles, it also marks Keister's 12th goal in an Eagle uniform and places her at eighth all-time for individual career goals.

As the momentum shifted in favor of the hosts, freshmen Grace Terrill and Gillian Martin and sophomores Maddie Morgan and Kalista Kakou would take a few cracks at CSUB's goalkeeper Flavia Burrell before junior Mya Elder-Hammond found the third goal. The junior took a magical strike from the left corner mark and slotted the ball in the near post upper seven in the 39th minute.

With the match in Eastern's hands, and determination to keep the goose egg on CSUB's side of the board, EWU captain goalkeeper Kelsee Winston made a magnificent diving save that denied a potential upper seven goal right before the half.

As the second half began, EWU would outshoot the Roadrunners 4-2 before finding a fourth goal in the 66th minute. Senior Taylor Matheny was the beneficiary of another smart team move when Winston booted the ball downfield from her own goalie box to find the running senior in their attacking third. Matheny calmly collected the ball and struck it into the back of the net with a left-footed effort, hardening any doubt in the match.

The Eagles refused to let up on the pressure as they would collect their fifth and final goal when freshman Anessa Campos ran on to EWU freshman goalkeeper Kiara Matson's goal kick before sliding it past Burrell in the 90th minute.

With time winding down and a series of CSUB corner kicks threatening the Eagle defense, EWU stood up strong to keep out the Roadrunners from any potential goals, solidifying their first shutout of the year.

Additionally, Winston picks up her 19th career shutout and the first shutout on the year for EWU.

WIN-LOSS RECORDS: EWU picks up its first victory of the season and improves to 1-4 overall while CSU Bakersfield moves to 0-4-1.

Additionally, the Eagles currently hold an all-time winning record of 6-2-2 and a seven-match unbeaten streak with an all-time home record of 3-1-1 against the Roadrunners.

TOP PERFORMANCES: Sariah Keister scored two goals and took four shots with three on goal. She collected four total points and solidified her spot at No. 8 all-time in career goals for the EWU program.

Mya Elder-Hammond, Taylor Matheny and Anessa Campos each scored one goal. Goalkeepers Kelsee Winston and Kiara Matson, along with Brooke Flores and Brittany Delridge each had one assist. In addition, Winston secures her 19th career shutout.

HEAD COACH MISSY STRASBURG: Head coach Missy Strasburg collects her first victory at the helm.

Following the match, and as a team, Strasburg secured her squad in several spots in the record book as the Eagles tied third for most goals scored in a single match, tied fourth for most assists in a single match, tied fourth for most points scored in a single match and tied second for largest margin of victory in school history.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES BY MISSY: On Starting Fast: "It was a great start, especially on the attacking side. There were a few moments defensively where we showed fatigue from coming off of our Thursday game against Seattle U. We had a ton of energy and that early goal from Sariah Keister was an energy boost for our whole group. We knew it would just take one goal to open up the game for us and take a deep breath or a sigh of relief. Sariah played as an attacking center-mid today and she was really dangerous and unaccounted for for some early balls." 

On Kelsee Winston's Play: "It's a good day for Kelsee when she doesn't have to fly around all the time and she can stand and just catch balls inside the box. We gave up more opportunities and shots than we would've liked, but not all of those were dangerous. Anytime we can take some stress off of Kelsee is a good thing. She had a lot of leadership, and got an assist with a big ball. Kiara Matson was also good, she got 20 minutes and an assist. So I'm happy with both goalkeepers.

On the Bench Players: "We wanted to get to a place today where we could get some good game minutes in for our team. With the difficult non-conference schedule, it's been hard to get players some minutes. You can't replace game experience in terms of minutes, so for a lot of our players it was a great opportunity. We want players to make a statement off of the bench and be a threat, and they did that today."

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Eastern Washington outshot CSU Bakersfield 16-13, landing 10 on target versus the Roadrunner's seven.

The Eagles forced the Roadrunners to make five saves versus EWU's seven, and Eastern also had two corner kicks while CSUB took five.

UP NEXT: Eastern Washington is back on the road to face Arkansas on Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. PT in San Antonio, Texas. Following the match, the Eagle host St. Thomas on Sept. 16th for their final non-conference home match.