PULLMAN, Wash. – Saint Mary's Women's Soccer defeated the No. 15 team in the country on Thursday night, shutting out the Washington State Cougars 1-0 for their first loss of the season while the Gaels improved to 4-2-1 on the year.
 
It was SMC's first win over a top-25 ranked team since 2011 when they beat No. 11 UC Irvine.
 
QUICK STRIKE
The Gaels wasted no time letting the Cougars know they were there to play, with Briana Salvetti's hustle goal in the third minute proving to be the game winner. Washington State played the ball back to their keeper Nadia Cooper in the third minute after some initial pressure from Kyllie Glock, just expecting a ho-hum, run of the mill set up from her.
 
But Salvetti applied pressure by remaining in Cooper's space, continuing to pursue possession and forcing her to dribble away from Salvetti. That led to Cooper fumbling the ball between her legs and losing her footing which allowed Salvetti to come up with the ball. In one motion the Gaels leading scorer thumped the ball into the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season and just like that it was a 1-0 lead for Saint Mary's.
 
DEFENSE WITHSTANDS PUSH
That goal would be SMC's only shot on frame of their eight shots, but they would make it stick. Taylor Poland was solid in goal, making five saves for her second shutout of the season and 19th as a Gael.
 
The only time Washington State beat Poland and the Gaels defense they had a shot go off the cross bar in 53rd minute. The Cougars would miss wide on a header via a free kick in the 77th and in the 80th they drew Poland out of her net, but she and SMC defense kept Washington State from keeping possession much less getting off a good shot, forcing the Cougars to loop back and reset their offense.
 
Saint Mary's clearly frustrated Washington State as well and made them chase the Gaels, leading to three yellow cards against the Cougars.
 
The 19 shutouts in Poland's career puts her at third all-time in program history behind Ruth Montgomery's 29.5 and Natalie Swanson's 23.

UP NEXT:
The Gaels will continue their non-conference road trip through the Pacific Northwest at Eastern Washington on Sunday, September 10 at 1:00 p.m.