ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University soccer team seems to have found the key to success. On the eve of their biggest win of the season, the Wildcats kept the ball rolling with yet another shutout win. This time, St. Kate's beat the University of Wisconsin-River Falls 1-0 thanks, once again, to a first half goal and outstanding defense.

Traditionally, games between St. Kate's and UW-River Falls are some of the tightest of the season. Last season, the Wildcats and Falcons were knotted 1-1 before Iryna Talkachova (Minsk, Belarus / Shattuck-St. Mary's) hit the game-winner with two seconds remaining in regulation. This year, it was a bit of a different story, as St. Kate's scored the first goal of the game less than 10 minutes into the first half. Allie Bird (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) found sophomore midfielder Maddie Conners (Lake Elmo, Minn. / Hill-Murray) at the top of the box, and Conners booted the ball over the hand of Falcon goalkeeper Haley Crosby for the first goal of the game at 9:23.

Although Conners goal proved to be enough at the end of regulation, the Wildcats continued to pepper Crosby with shots for the remaining 80 minutes of play. Kaitlin Machovec (Woodbury, Minn. / North St. Paul) generated chance after chance on the offensive side of the ball, setting up scoring opportunities and even getting a few shots off from the far side of the field. Crosby and the UW-River Falls defense stopped every one of Machovec's shots, but her crosses to various teammates kept pressure on the Falcons defense the entire game.

Amanda Carey (Hudson, Wis. / Hudson) and Rachael Holm (Bemidji, Minn. / Bemidji) both had chances to score for St. Kate's in the game. Carey nearly put the Wildcats up 2-0 in the 13^th minute of the game, but Crosby made a jumping save in front of the net. Holm's near goal came in the early minutes of the second half, but once again, Crosby made the save to keep the score 1-0.

While the Wildcats did score early in the game, that left a lot of time for UW-River Falls to even the score. However, Jessica Perez-Adame (San Jacinto, Calif. / San Jacinto) and St. Kate's defense kept the Falcons off the board for 90 minutes of play. Perez-Adame made five saves for the Wildcats, while St. Kate's stingy backs continued to play strong defense and prevent UW-River Falls from even getting scoring chances.

The Falcons did manage to put together a bit of an offensive stand in the final seconds of the game. However, the Wildcats came up in the clutch, booted the ball out of bounds with two seconds remaining to clinch the 1-0 victory.

Conners scored St. Kate's only goal of the game, which was her fourth of the season. She is now second on the team in scoring with four goals and one assist for nine points. Perez-Adame earned her third win of the season and her first shut out, improving to 3-2-2. 

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 6-5-2 on the season and hold a 4-2-2 mark in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play. St. Kate's will return to the pitch on Saturday, when the team travels to St. Peter, Minnesota to take on Gustavus Adolphus College. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.