St. Ambrose women's soccer hosted No. 24 Missouri Valley for their home opener this afternoon at St. Vincent's Athletic Complex. It was a tight match throughout but heroes Taylor DeSplinter and Kendall Wendt both scored late goals to upset the ranked Vikings. The Bees secured a late 2-0 lead to seal the victory. SAU moves to 1-1 on the season.

Early on the Bees had a chance from Kaitlyn Brunson but her shot would just sneak high to remain scoreless in the game. Both the Bees and Vikings would exchange shots throughout the half but none threatening until St. Ambrose would rattle off a corner kick for a chance. That chance was ultimately blocked before a real opportunity on net. It was a back and forth game during the first 45 minutes of play. St. Ambrose would end the first half with seven shots total. 

Action would heat up in the second half as SAU fired off two early shots from Mia Hefner and McKenna Shilevinatz from a Brunson corner kick. SAU would create two back to back corner kicks for a cluster in the box but no one with a Bee uniform to finish the opportunity. The Vikings created chances to scramble the Bees defense but the strong defensive St. Ambrose squad would never break.

The match broke open after a Brunson free kick just outside the box. Brunson floated a free kick to the far post where a hungry DeSplinter headed in her first goal of the season. This goal gave the Bees some breathing room late. No more than four minutes later Wendt scored her third goal of the season to seal the game for SAU. Mia Vetter played Wendt striding down the sideline where Wendt showed a tremendous individual effort to score the final goal of the game. Missouri Valley could not get anything going after as the Bees took the final 2-0. 

Both DeSplinter and Wendt notched a goal for the Bees to start the win column for the season.

Brunson and Vetter tallied one assist each. 

Grace Kuchar notched three saves on the evening.

SAU has a string of away matches before they return to their home field. The Bees will have a week to prepare as they travel to Northern Iowa next Wed., Aug. 28. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. in Cedar Falls, Iowa.