Eagles fall to Huskies in first exhibition

CHENEY — Eastern Washington women's soccer hosted new Big Ten opponent the Washington Huskies to open preseason play. The Eagles fell to the Huskies 2-0, but head coach Missy Strasburg was pleased to host a quality Big Ten opponent at home.

"It is always nice to be able to get those quality teams actually here in Cheney. We certainly had that experience getting Nebraska here last year and I am really grateful for the relationship with Nicole and her staff at Washington to be committed to coming back this direction. We have a quality pitch here, we have a good facility, and we had a pretty good crowd today which was nice for the first exhibition."

Eastern welcomes 11new players to the roster for the 2024 season. Graduate transfer midfielder Isabelle Herting, freshman forward Bella Bunnage, and freshman midfielder Dakota Harris each recorded a shot in their Eagles debut. Junior midfielder Becca Gaido played the full 90 minutes, and returning junior goalkeeper Kamryn Willoughby recorded 10 saves.

"We made fewer changes then we have in years past of exhibitions, but we have had a significant number of players rise competitively and execute what has been trained. We are five days in with five true training sessions getting ready for this with a massive amount to grow," Strasburg said. "We did approach this from a competitive standpoint about individual competitiveness from the games, but also from a team aspect staying true to the principles we have trained from the last five days, and giving some people some time to settle in and grow."

Eastern recorded five corner kicks to the Huskies' two, and forced two Huskies offsides. The Eagles maintained possession for 49% of the match, and did not allow a goal in the second half.

"It was really nice to see against a very athletic, very aggressive opponent and the confidence of those players in particular to grow," Strasburg said. "Again, as we move forward there is going to be situational soccer where it makes sense to play the ball longer, but it was a great moment for us today to really just stick to our guns and say, we want to build, we want to get people comfortable making decisions against a very mobile opponent."

Eastern Washington will be home again on their home pitch this Thursday (Aug. 8) at 5 p.m. to host Thompsons River in the team's final exhibition.

The Eagles will open the regular season on the road Aug. 15 against the Troy Trojans in Troy, Ala.