ST. PAUL, Minn. - The last time the St. Catherine University Wildcats (3-0-0, 1-0-0) and Augburg University Auggies met, the final result was a 1-0 victory for the Wildcats in Minneapolis, Minn. This afternoon the Wildcats and Auggies opened the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) women's soccer season in St. Paul, Minn. with again, the result a 1-0 victory for the Wildcats. Senior midfielder Kaitlin Machovec (Woodbury, Minn. / North) scored the lone goal of the game in the first period with an assist from junior forward Allie Bird (Maple Grove, Minn.) off of her corner kick near the 27 minute mark. 

St. Kate's has had a strong start to the 2018 season already with credit being spread across the field. Junior goalkeeper Tayler Koop (Blaine, Minn.) ranks first in several categories in the MIAC as she has yet to allow a single goal. Koop leads in save percentage, goals against and goals-against average. In today's match-up, Koop had 6 saves versus Augsburg's Emily Chapman who had 8 saves and allowed 1 goal. 

Another leader in the conference with number of assists is Bird. She currently ranks first in the conference for assists with four, including her assist today. Among those deserving credit in today's win was certainly Bird keeping play in front of Chapman's net most of the game. Bird had 5 shots,3 shots on goal and one assist. Assisting Bird in the front was first-year Sofia Campbell (St. Paul, Minn. / Nova Classical Academy) with 2 shots, and 1 shot on goal. 

Coming off a four goal game last week against Univ. of Minnesota-Morris, Lauren Witte was vital again today as a forward trading time with Bird. Witte added 2 shots for the Wildcats and 1 shot on goal. First-years Amora Valencia (Hemet, Calif. / Nuview Bridge Early College) and Taylor Johnson (Cottage Grove, Minn. / Park) have shown they will players to watch for the Wildcats over the next four seasons. Valencia had 2 shots and 1 shot on goal against the Auggies while Johnson added 2 shots in the game early and was key at midfield maintaining the play in the offensive zone. 

Things ramped up defensively on both sides of the field after Machovec's goal in the 27th minute.  Augsburg played a quick offense well trained to play the whole field but the Wildcats defense with the lead of Machovec, were ready for the challenge. The defense held the Auggies to only 12 shots total compared to the Wildcats 18 shots.

With this win, this is the first time the Wildcats have beat Augsburg in the regular season since October 7, 2015 with a score of 2-0 Wildcats. This game was also the last time before today that the two teams met in St. Paul. 

The Wildcats are at MIAC conference opponent Macalester College (1-3-0,0-1-0) in St. Paul this Saturday, September 15 at 1 p.m.