SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's soccer team broke through with its first win of the season with a 3-1 win over visiting California Baptist in PacWest Conference action. Saturday's win also marked the first career victory for first-year Head Coach Kelly Coffey and the first-ever victory against CBU for Dominican women's soccer.

"Today was an outstanding performance from the ladies. We changed some things in the lineup to get more attacking quality going forward and it paid off," said Coffey, who deflected all praise to his student-athletes. "Mariah Meza, Lauren Gollnick, and Lily Dubuc were dangerous all day and created numerous opportunities. However, I was most pleased with our effort and our competitiveness. We've talked about competing at high level and with discipline for 90 minutes. We did that today.

"Our backline of Stephanie Owens, Stephanie Pawek, Keira Dagy, and Rachel Stowell was outstanding," added Coffey. "As was goalkeeper Gabriella Tassano. They dealt with a very talented and athletic frontline. Now it's time to build a winning streak and to continue improving as a team."

Much of the first half of the game was played in the center of the field — in the first 30 minutes, both teams had combined for three shots. A Lancers (1-5-1/1-1-1 PacWest) foul led to one of five first-half corner kicks for the Penguins (1-5-1/1-1-0 PacWest). Pawek served up a perfect ball from the right side. The ball was flicked back by Stephanie Owens to a wide-open Katrina Cline, who bent the a ball to the back right from 25 yards out with six seconds left before the half.

With all of the momentum coming out of halftime, the Penguins added a second goal in the 54th minute when Dubuc played a ball to Meza, who beat a diving Sara Escobedo to the close back post. Meza netted her second goal of the day and gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead in the 62nd minute when Pawek played a perfect cross off a free kick.

CBU got a goal back in the 75th minute on an unassisted goal by Angelique Carrillo. The Lancers took one more shot, in the 88th minute, but Tassano was there for the save. The freshman keeper earned her first collegiate win in goal and made three saves.

Dominican will look to make it two in a row when Holy Names comes calling on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 12 p.m., followed by the men at 2:30 p.m. The Dominican soccer teams will help show their commitment to the fight against pediatric cancer as they wear gold laces for Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer®, an initiative of Go 4 The Goal. All funds stay in the community where they are raised to support local children, with the funds from this match benefitting UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland. To learn more, and to donate, visit go4thegoal.org/laceup.html. Live stats and video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live with live audio provided by radio.dominican.edu. Fans are encouraged to tag their posts with Tweet #G4Gucsfoakland.

Sept. 29 is also National Coffee Day and students, faculty, and staff are invited to "Coffee with Coffey" from 7:30 to 9 a.m. i front of Caleruega Hall. Mingle with Dominican's new soccer coaches — head women's coach Kelly Coffey and head men's coach Zach Kingsley. Grab a cup of coffee courtesy of Epicurean Group and doughnuts from Johnny Doughnuts and make your donation to Go 4 The Goal.