Early on, Malone controlled the ball, taking three shots over the first five minutes of play. Sophomore goalkeeper Sam Faulkner made the save on the first shot, but the third shot snuck past her in the bottom right corner of the net to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead. In the 24th minute, Wheeling nearly answered with two big scoring opportunities. The first came courtesy of freshman Nyah Smith, who scored her first collegiate goal in the first game of the year. Following a Wheeling corner kick, Smith controlled the ball in front of the net and sent a shot towards the middle. Unfortunately, it was saved by Malone's Amelia Henderhan to keep it a 1-0 game. The second opportunity came in that same 24th minute, off yet another Wheeling corner kick. This time it was Talynn DeBartolo who took the shot, but Henderhan made the save again keeping Wheeling off the board.
 

DeBartolo would put one more shot on net before the half was out, but The Cardinals went into the locker room trailing 1-0. As the second half began, the Pioneers picked up right where they left off in the first half. They added two goals within the first 12 minutes of play, courtesy of Reagan McCourt and Ashton Gracie, and added their fourth goal in the 60th minute by Brynn Mowrer to extend their lead to 4-0. The Cardinals found themselves in a hole, but never stopped fighting and still took their shots when they were available. Over the next 10 minutes, Mary DiFonzo, Caryn Goins, and Olivia Hoban each got off shots with all three falling wide of the net. DeBartolo added her team leading third shot of the day, but it also missed the target. When the final horn blew, Wheeling ended up falling to Malone 4-0 to move to 1-1 on the season.
 

Talynn DeBartolo led Wheeling's offensive attack with three shots on the day, putting two of those on goal. Nyah Smith added a shot on goal, while Mary DiFonzo and Olivia Hoban each took a shot to round out Wheeling's offensive attack. Sam Faulkner made her first start of the season and played another strong half making two saves on three shots faced through the first 45 minutes of play. Olivia Kqira came on for the games final 45 minutes, and made one save to round out her day. With one more non-conference game on the schedule before the start of MEC play, the Cardinals will look to continue their progression and get ready for what's to come in the conference.
 

The Wheeling University Women's Soccer team returns to action on Sunday, September 11th, when they take on Salem University with kickoff at 1 PM.