By James Hernandez

After replacing head coaches in each of the first two seasons, year three of women's soccer at the College of Southern Nevada began with a hopeful optimism that was felt throughout the program, thanks to the proven track record of new head coach Geoff Hawkins. Hawkins had far exceeded expectations in two seasons as head coach of the Men's program, earning a vote of confidence from athletic director Dexter Irvin to lead women's soccer at CSN into the future.

The first test for the Lady Coyotes in 2018 was the Western Wyoming Community College Mustangs. WWCC arrived to Southern Nevada looking to take advantage of a team that was not only learning to play with one another, but also trying to learn an entirely different system of play under the new regime. Right from the opening whistle it was apparent that the conditioning and overall organization of the team was far superior to anything we had seen the previous two seasons.

Southern Nevada was aggressive and had the Mustangs on their heels all half, resulting in a late goal off the foot of Leticia Ibarra thanks to a sweet assist from Brianna Duran. The goal in the 40^th minute sent CSN into the locker room with a 1-0 advantage as they totally dominated the pace of play, outshooting the Mustangs 11-1 in the opening half of play.

2^nd half action looked eerily similar to the first as the Lady Coyotes controlled the ball for the majority of the half, tripling up WWCC in shots 9-3. Persistence paid off in a big way for Southern Nevada when Kayla Steiner dropped a dime to Ashlee Jordan that found its way to the back of the Western Wyoming net. That goal in the 70^th minute extended CSN's lead to 2-0 and made the Mustang's uphill battle now seem like scaling the world's tallest mountain. Southern Nevada continued its defensive commitment for the remainder of the match, eventually shutting out Western Wyoming by a final score of 2-0.

The victory was the first of many for Coach Hawkins and his staff, but more importantly it was the validation that an exciting new era is on the horizon for women's soccer at the College of Southern Nevada.

Fans your Lady Coyotes will be back in action at home Saturday September 1^st versus Heat FC ECNL. For match time and ticketing information log onto www.csncoyotes.com or follow us on Facebook CSNCoyotes and Twitter @CSN_Wsoc.