The WSU Cougars (5-1-0) hosted the Loyola Marymount Lions (0-5-2) in a 2-1 win Sunday afternoon on the Lower Soccer Field.

The last time the Cougars and Lions played was over a decade ago in 2004. The match marked head coach Todd Shulenberger’s 50th win as head coach of Washington State.

“I mean I’ll take any win I can get. It’s been four years and some change now … credit to these girls and staff I have out here,” Shulenberger said.

From the first whistle, it was clear the Cougars were on the attack.

Assisted with a flick from junior forward Elyse Bennett, senior forward Morgan Weaver snagged an early goal only two minutes into the game.

In the eighth minute, the Cougars failed to clear a long throw-in, and the Lions junior midfielder Maki Kono capitalized sweeping a shot underneath the Cougar goalkeeper Ella Dederick into the back of the net 1-1.

Then, Bennett headed the ball from a free-kick just outside the eighteen-yard box over the Lions defense and goalkeeper to get the Cougars up 2-1. Junior Hanna Goff assisted the goal.

“I feel like coming off of Friday’s loss, we all felt like we had something to prove … so it’s nice obviously to get a win, but it’s even better coming off of a loss,” Bennett said.

The Lions made a goalkeeping switch in minute 23 and gave freshman goalkeeper Sadie Kenny a chance in the back of the net.

Save after save, Kenny did not back down, denying anything and everything the Cougars shot her way.

The Cougars finished the first half with 15 shots on goal while the Lions only had two.

Despite 26 shots and eight corner kicks in the game, the Cougars finished the game 2-1 over the Lions.

“Unlike the Gonzaga game … today we put a lot of stuff to the keeper … so our shot selection needs to be better,” Shulenberger said.

Going into the game, Shulenberger said he told his players that they must remember that winning is hard and what happened Friday against Michigan was unacceptable.

“That’s no disrespect to Michigan, but we should not have lost that game in my eyes,” Shulenberger said. “Today we got the result we wanted and I think we created a lot of opportunity going into Pac-12 play.”

Bennett mentioned that offensively they are looking forward to getting better at scoring.

“We started out the season strong, but we knew that 6-0 and 5-0 probably wasn’t going to be realistic throughout the season,” Bennett said.

The Cougars head to the Rainbow Wahine Shootout in Honolulu, Hawaii, for their next match against the University of Hawai’i on Thursday at 10 p.m.