GRAMBLING, La. – Lightning, Louisiana, shutouts, and victories have seemingly gone hand-in-hand for the University of North Dakota soccer team this season and tonight was no different as the Fighting Hawks defeated Grambling, 2-0, on Friday in Louisiana.
 
UND moves to 5-1-1 on the season, its best six-game start since 2005. The Hawks also move to 4-0-1 away from Grand Forks, becoming the first team since the 2004 Sioux to post positive results in their first four contests away from the Grand Cities.
 
For the second straight contest in the Bayou, both sides had to deal with the weather as the match was delayed for over 30 minutes due to lightning in the area. Due to the delay, the tilt was called with just a few minutes to spare on the clock because of darkness.
 
"Good win on the road against a very competitive Grambling team," said Head Coach Chris Logan. "We rode our luck a little the first half and got a great goal from Katie from a Knox cross."
 
Olivia Swenson posted her sixth shutout of the season, moving into third place all-time at UND with nine career clean sheets. The senior goalkeeper has now only allowed one goal on the year and extends her road shutout streak to over 452 minutes.
 
Katie Moller continues to take The Summit League by storm, scoring her league-leading seventh goal of the season. The senior remains fifth in school history with 23 goals, but is now just four tallies away from matching the UND Division I record of 27 set by Rachael Loomis (2008-11). Moller's game-winning strike was the seventh of her career, jumping into the top five all-time at UND. The senior has now scored in nine of her last 13 matches and five of the first seven this season.
 
Sophomore Karly Sandoval scored her first-career goal on Friday while freshman Olivia Knox turned in her first multi-point contest of her career with a pair of assists. Mara Yapello added her third helper of her career on Sandoval's tally for a double assist.
 
Both sides looked to feel each other out in the opening half as UND went on the offensive attack. The Hawks were slightly over aggressive, however, being called for a pair of offside infractions early in the match.
 
After an early save by Swenson, UND converted the opening tally of the game when Knox and Moller completed a beautiful passing play to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. Knox swung a cross into the box for Moller where the senior collected the ball and scored her seventh of the season on the counter attack in the 26th minute.
 
Following the goal, weather played a factor as the match was delayed until 5:55 p.m. due to lightning in the area. This was the second time the Hawks have dealt with a delay due to lightning, also seeing the same situation arise against Southern during the opening weekend.
 
Out of the delay, the Tigers had a threatening corner kick in the dying moments of the half, but UND headed to the locker room with a 1-0 lead at the break.
 
In the second half, the Hawks struck on the counter again. Yapello found Knox who threaded a pass to an open Sandoval and the defender blistered a shot between the goalkeeper and far post for a beautiful tic-tac-goal passing play in the 52nd minute for a 2-0 UND lead.
 
After the tally UND began to take possession of the game, holding the Tigers to just one shot on target for the remainder of the match. The visitors nearly added to their lead when Cassie Giddings had a pair of good looks towards goal, but they were denied by the keeper.
 
"Second half we managed the game a lot better and we were happy with how well we competed," said Logan. Sandoval scored a great second goal to give us breathing room and we could have got another one that could have killed the game."
 
With just minutes on the clock, the match was called due to darkness and the lack of proper lighting on the field to give UND a 2-0 victory.
 
"Overall, a good result on the road and we are excited to play another game on Sunday!" exclaimed Logan.
 
North Dakota will look for the weekend sweep against Alcorn State at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Mississippi.