The Wildcats took on “the Whits”—Whitworth College and Whitman College– for their doubleheader last weekend.

Game one on Saturday, Sept. 28 against the Blues was all Linfield, with a final score of 5-0 to make the ‘Cats 2-1-2 in conference. The Wildcats showed their dominance early in the game. They took multiple shots at the goal and kept the pressure on the Blues defense.

The Blues were able to hold up until the 19th minute when Linfield sophomore Michayla Sponsel scored her first season goal, assisted by sophomore Kristen Burke.

And the scoring did not see to stop after that. Including Burke, a total of four players scored against the Blues. For the second goal, Junior Sydney Kuehn would take advantage of a perfectly placed corner by junior Natalie Amara and head it in for a goal.

Then, in the 41st minute Kuehn found the back of the net again with another assist by Burke.

Kuehn shared the credit on her goals and said, “All of my goals wouldn’t be possible without the great play of my teammates.”

After the half-time break, the intensity of the Wildcats did not let up. Even with such a large lead the ‘Cats were relentless on defense and offense.

After Whitman sent in some fresh legs, they were able to keep the ball longer to challenge the Wildcats’ defense and get a few shots on frame.

Even with the effort from the Blue,  the Wildcats wouldn’t be stopped. Burke got her goal when she scored from a pass from senior Sami Moellmer.  

Linfield had a total of 26 shots throughout the game, while Whitman was only able to get seven, and only three were on goal.

“I think this game showed that we’re capable at dominating and scoring against teams,” Burke said of the result. “I think if we came out like that for every game, we’d be more than capable of winning conference.”

In the 58th minute, junior Amidee Colleknon scored the last goal of the game. The final was Linfield 5 and Whitman 0.

The Wildcats then hosted Whitworth on Sunday, Sept. 29 for the second game of the doubleheader weekend. The field, already wet from the light rain earlier, would set the stage for an intense fight for the Wildcats against the then second-ranked team in the conference.

Despite the efforts of sophomore goalie Madi Reimer, Whitworth was too fast off the ball and within 2 minutes got on the board first.

The half went back and forth between the two teams. Even though the teams may have seemed equally matched in possession time, the Pirates were able to sneak in another goal in before the half.

However, the first half ended with the Pirates on top with 2 goals.   

The Wildcats didn’t allow that to stand as is. The momentum changed when senior Sami Moellmer had a punishing kick to score in the 54th minute, bringing the Wildcats within a goal to tie the game.

“My goal against Whitworth was my first of this season so it was really special for me to be able to do it at home and against a tough opponent,” Moellmer said.

The Wildcats’ played hard showing their competitiveness by making every set piece a battle that 

the Pirates were just able to keep out of the back of the net.

Despite the heroics of Moellmer and the rest of the team, the Pirates would hold on to their lead.

The ‘Cats went on to play to play two more games this weekend, scoring a total of 4 points to close the gap between Linfield and the fourth conference-leader, Pacific Lutheran.

The women’s soccer team beat Pacific 5-0 at home on Saturday and tied University of Puget Sound 0-0 in double overtime on Sunday.

After two weekends of games, the ‘Cats retained their fifth-place standing in the Northwest Conference.