AZUSA, Calif. -- Freshman forward Natalie Sun scored less than 2 minutes into the game, her fourth goal of the season, giving the NAIA's No. 4-ranked Azusa Pacific an early lead it would not relinquish in a 2-0 victory over No. 17-ranked Concordia.

A loose ball in the box landed at Sun's feet, and the freshman forward's quick strike to the far post from right to left put the Cougars in front just 88 seconds into the contest. Senior forward Theresa Broad added 8 of Azusa Pacific's 16 shots on the day, hitting a 33rd-minute strike into the upper 90 at the far post from 17 yards out. Broad's goal pushed the score to 2-0 and ended up finishing the game's scoring.

"We've struggled to get early goals this year, so that definitely helped (today)," Broad said. "The early goals helped seal the result, but we have to continue picking up our intensity after that. That's what we have to keep working on."

Despite a total shots advantage of 16-6, the Cougars struggled both with possession and with a consistent attack throughout a choppy opening half of play.

"I thought we were sluggish, and I don't know that we gave a very good effort today," Cougar head coach Jason Surrell said. "The idea of what we want to do is getting better, and the opportunities will continue to come, but the speed at which we were doing it today was slow and sluggish, and it's not where we need to be."

In her fourth start of the season, freshman goalkeeper Michelle Wieland handled the limited opportunities created by Concordia's attack to post her third clean sheet of the season. Wieland finished with 4 saves to preserve the shutout, which was Azusa Pacific's sixth in its past 7 conference games dating back to last season.

Just minutes after Broad's go-ahead score, Concordia's Aubrey Abercrombie got ahead of the Cougar defense and legged a shot towards the right corner of the net from 19 yards out. Wieland laid out to her left to parry the ball out of bounds beyond the post for a spectacular save.

One of the Cougars' best scoring chances of its 10 second-half shots was a 69th-minute 4-on-3 breakaway just outside the box. However, the lead Azusa Pacific attacker was caught offside, 1 of 4 offsides violations whistled on the Cougars in the game. Azusa Pacific put 6 of its 10 second-half shots on goal and limited the Eagles to just 1 shot after halftime.

"Today was just a sluggish day," senior midfielder Lauren Lane said. "We felt it in warm-ups and tried to change it, but we just couldn't shake it off. We need to get hungrier. I think we're just comfortable with the fact that we're getting shots on goal, but there's not the desire to put it in the net. We're taking shots just to take shots, not to score."

Azusa Pacific improves to 8-2 overall and moves into sole possession of the GSAC lead at 4-0 in conference play. The NAIA's top-ranked and previously unbeaten California Baptist suffered a 4-1 upset on the road at No. 9-ranked Vanguard Wednesday afternoon. Concordia, which made its first appearance of the season this week in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll, falls to 5-2-2 overall and drops to 2-1 in GSAC play.

The Cougars are on the road for their next 2 games, first playing Biola in La Mirada on Saturday (Oct. 10), followed by a trip to The Master's College next Wednesday (Oct. 13).

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