With two goals in the first 25 minutes, the UW-Eau Claire women’s soccer team came away with a 2-0 win on Saturday against UW-La Crosse.

“I think we played pretty strong,” senior Alli Kishaba said. “We had a few letdowns throughout the game, but overall I think we played really well.”

The first goal for Eau Claire came in the seventh minute off the foot of freshman Shyla Gilbertson, and was assisted by senior Sam Krueger.

“Lisa Marco dribbled to the end line in the corner . and she just dropped the ball,” Krueger said. “I crossed it in across the goal and Shyla headed it in.”

In the 24th minute Gilbertson was at it again, picking up her second score of the game on a pass from junior Jaime Schiesel. The two goals from Gilbertson were her eighth and ninth of the year, leading the team.

Rain started to fall after halftime, slowing down both offenses, and keeping the score the same for the remainder of the game.

“It started raining pretty hard so the ball was skipping,” Kishaba said. “It was harder to control definitely in the second half.”

Earlier in the season Eau Claire struggled to maintain leads towards the end of games. A frantic pace would develop during the waning moments, but Krueger didn’t see it as much of an issue today. She said there were a few slipups, but that the team remained poised for the majority of the game

Sophomore Emily Kidd came up with the shutout for the Blugolds, it was her fourth of the year. Kidd was tested very little as Eau Claire surrendered just one shot for the second straight game.

“We’ve really started using communication and have really caught on to our shape,” Krueger said. “I feel like it (the team’s defense) is getting a lot better, so hopefully we can continue with fewer shots on goal.”

The Blugolds picked up the win, but Krueger still thought it could have been more decisive.

“We got the win and the shutout, so we were happy with that, but we didn’t want to be complacent with just a 2-0 margin of goals,” Krueger said. “We were hoping to score more, but obviously that didn’t happen.

To begin the season, Eau Claire stumbled out to a 1-2-1 start after switching to a new formation. The Blugolds have rattled off seven straight wins since then, and have improved to 8-2-1 overall and 5-0-0 in the WIAC.

“After the first couple of games I think we were all really nervous and feeling a lot of pressure,” Kishaba said. “Now we’ve grown into our new system and are playing really well.”