ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's soccer team leveled their early season record at 1-1 with controlled and staunch defensive effort Sunday afternoon in a 1-0 victory over the University of Pacific. The Mids (1-1) used a first half penalty kick goal by Eleanor Pratt (Sr., New Orleans, La.) and a stingy showing by their defense to shut out the Tigers (0-2) at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility. 
 
"Our possession was very good today," remarked head coach Carin Gabarra. "Our energy was good and we went after getting goals early. We had some intensity to our attack. There are some things to work on; we weren't great at certain moments when we were ahead a goal and we were giving the ball away in tight situations where we shouldn't. There are things that we know that we have to fix moving forward. We got some good minutes out of a host of people; I thought [Kristina] Dzhandzhapanyan was awesome, our midfielders did a lot of work. We were good in the attack. We just need to tighten some things up going ahead."
 
The Mids were pressing the action early versus the Tigers on Sunday as the team tallied its first corner kick within five minutes before its persistence resulted in a penalty kick opportunity at 11:10. Taking lead pass into the box, Hannah Miller (Fr., Mattawan, Mich.) took a few dribbles before drawing contact from a Pacific defender. With the ball set on the penalty spot, Pratt calmly took the shot and rifled the ball to her right past the outstretched arms of Pacific's goalie, Regan Heslop.
 
Navy continued with the pressure in search of a second goal as its wing midfielders, Kristina Dzhandzhapanyan (So., Diamond Bar, Calif.) and Molly Gillcrist (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) and later off the bench, Victoria Tran (Fr., Clarksville, Md.) peppered Pacific's goal box with crosses through the rest of the first half, but the Tigers came away unscathed.
 
Coming out of the halftime intermission still up 1-0, the Mids continued to hold the majority of the possession, while hunting for an insurance marker. The times the Tigers did possess the ball in the final 45 minutes were a bit more contentious and required the Mids' back four of Alex Jackson (Jr., Centennial, Colo.), Mary August (Sr., Arnold, Md.), Baseley McClaskey (Jr., Grand Junction, Colo.), Kayla Robinson (Sr., Evanston, Ill.) and reserve Lexie Silva (Jr., Danville, Calif.) to be on the top of the their game. After taking just one shot in the opening half of play, Pacific tallied six shots in the second half though only one, a lengthy shot by Kendall Bietsch in the 75^thminute, broke through and tested Sydney Fortson (Jr., Claremont, Calif.) in goal.
 
After withstanding a corner kick situation and two ensuing shots, one blocked and one high in the 88^thminute by Pacific, Navy closed out the contest to secure the victory. 
 
For the game, Navy outshot Pacific, 13-7 with a 3-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Mids took seven corner kicks versus four for the visiting Tigers.
 
Fortson improved to 1-1 in goal with her tenth career solo shutout.
 
18 players saw action for the Mids, who were playing in their second game in less than 72 hours.
 
"Our younger players did a great job of contributing today," said Gabarra. "We have some talented underclassmen and, while we rely on their athleticism, it's their ability as soccer players that is outstanding. We're relying on all of our players and it's our depth that helps us win games early on."
 
After this run of opening week competition versus No. 20 North Carolina State and Pacific, Navy will next be in action on Friday, August 24 with a 5 p.m. tilt at home versus Stetson.
 
"Going 1-1 against two quality opponents, one from the ACC  and the other from California, is a good way to start. We like to play these high caliber teams early on and learn where we are and what we need to do to get better at. We're 1-1 and that's okay. We take things one game at a time so we'll move our attention to our next game on Friday."