Texas Lutheran University

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran women's soccer opened its 14th season of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) competition with a bang on Friday night, turning in an impressive 3-0 win over the LeTourneau YellowJackets at Gustafson Field.

The Bulldogs improved to 7-3 overall and 1-0 in SCAC play with Friday serving as the SCAC opener. TLU improved to 4-1 in SCAC openers under head coach Kerwin Johnson and 8-5-1 overall in SCAC openers. With Friday's result, TLU snapped LeTourneau's program record six-game win streak.

The Bulldogs outshot the YellowJackets 28-8 and had 18 shots on goal compared to the YellowJackets four. TLU won the corner kick competition, 9-5.

Noelani Ajel (Cibolo/Steele), Emma Alvarado (Austin/Johnson), and Natalia Cortez (Edinburg/Robert Vela) all found the back of the net against the YellowJackets, while Alejandra Lopez (El Paso/Eastwood) and Kristina Cromwell (Spring/Klein Collins) recorded assists on Friday. Defensively, the Bulldogs recorded their fourth clean sheet of the campaign. Ajel's 39th minute, game-winning strike was the first goal of her career.

In the early going, it looked like the LeTourneau offense was taking control of the match, creating quality possessions and the first clean looks of the match. However, after the YellowJackets forced senior goalkeeper Alysa Marquez (Miami, FL/Dr. Michael Krop) to make two key saves, Ajel delivered the spark the Bulldogs offense needed to run away with the match. At the 39:03 mark, Lopez sent the ball inside the box on a corner kick to Ajel who was able to forcibly head it in to get TLU on the board.

The TLU offense came alive in the second half, dominating the possession for much of the remainder of the game.

Out of the half, the Bulldogs didn't let up in search of another score. It wasn't long until they found it, as Cromwell crossed it into the box to find a streaking Alvarado to poke the ball past the YellowJackets keeper to double the TLU lead. Natalia Cortez added an insurance goal in the 66th minute, her team-leading seventh of the season, giving TLU an impressive 3-0 win to open conference play, ending their three-match losing streak in the process.

Marquez made four saves in goal on the night for the Bulldogs for her third clean sheet of the season.

Up next, TLU continues their nine-game homestand as they host Austin College on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 2:30 PM. The match will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

For all updates on Texas Lutheran Women's Soccer, follow @tluwsoc on X (Twitter) and Instagram and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).