University of Redlands freshman midfielder Fionna Connolly (Salem, OR) helped bury Cal Lutheran University by a 3-0 score in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) women’s soccer match on Saturday, Oct. 4 as she made her mark on the program with the first two goals of her young Bulldog career.

Connolly widened the scoring gap in the second half, tacking on the final two goals of the match. She scored first in a wild scramble in the box following a corner kick by sophomore defender Chelsea Hafley (Redlands, CA), knocking in a goal off of a pass by senior forward Erica Jahn (Davis, CA). In the match’s waning minutes, Connolly fired off a chip shot from well outside the top of the box and scored. Freshman midfielder Laura Renault (Laguna Beach, CA) fed her the ball off of a header and recorded her first career assist.

After 44 minutes of scoreless play, senior midfielder Becky Willis (Escondido, CA) fought a crowd in the box and slipped a ball past goalkeeper Kristin Borzi. Freshman midfielder Becky Harris (Seattle, WA) earned the assist on the score.

Marked largely by physical play, the match featured many fouls (14 for Cal Lutheran and 12 for Redlands) but just one yellow card, which was handed out to the Regals’ Lauren Hess in the 16th minute.

Picking up the win in net, junior goalkeeper Tenley Rawlings (Salt Lake City, UT) continued to serve as a solid backstop in one of the nation’s premier back lines. She saved all four shots she faced, and her counterpart, sophomore goalkeeper Bailey Hughes (Boise, ID), played the final eight minutes of the match and picked up one save.

With a Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges loss today, the Bulldogs tie the Athenas for first in the SCIAC standings. A fight for sole possession of the No. 1 spot ensues on Wednesday as Redlands heads west to Claremont to face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 4 p.m.