SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific University women's soccer team won their third consecutive Great Northwest Athletic Conference match on Thursday afternoon, defeating Saint Martin's 1-0 thanks to an early goal from Moira MacKay.

The Falcons earned their lead over the Saints with strong efforts from key players. Kathryn Nyone forced the ball away from the Saints near midfield. She'd pass it ahead to Jacqueline Blakley, who found Sophie Beadle in the middle of the field with room to play.

MacKay made a great run near the top of the 18-yard box. Beadle put a perfect pass at the feet of MacKay, who finished with her third goal of the season. Blakeley and Beadle were credited with assists.

Beadle chalked up her fifth assist of the season. She entered the weekend tied with NNU's Nicole Lewis for the most assists in the conference.

"We'll take any conference win we can get," head coach Arby Busey said. "It was a struggle for us today. We're a group that has a lot of fire power and can create opportunities like we had today. Credit to Saint Martin's for making it difficult for us to hit the net with those opportunities. They were urgent in their approach to the game and made things challenging for us." 

The Falcons were close to adding to their lead in each half. In the 34th minute, Kayla Wallace hammered a shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar before being cleared by Saint Martin's.

In the 78th minute, Maya Parman did the same thing. Her shot from distance hit the bottom of the crossbar, but the Falcons couldn't shove it in goal.

Mercedes Cullen was solid in goal for the Falcons against the Saints. She checked in with her third clean sheet of the season. She wasn't necessarily busy, making just one save in 90 minutes in goal.

SPU was relentless in their offensive attack on Thursday. They mounted 15 shots, with eight coming on goal against the Saints. The Falcons took seven corner kicks and forced the SMU keeper into making six saves.

The Falcons face one of their toughest tests of 2023 on Saturday at 2 p.m. when 24th-ranked Western Oregon visits Interbay Soccer Stadium for a GNAC match.

"We'll need to continue to work toward creating opportunity attacking-wise," Busey added. "It will be a group that will create chances for themselves. We'll have to be great on both sides of the ball to get what we want out of Saturday."