AZUSA, Calif. -- Freshman midfielder Molly Lavin scored less than 4 minutes into the game, and No. 4-seeded Azusa Pacific University posted a 3-0 victory over unseeded and previously unbeaten University of Maine at Fort Kent Saturday afternoon in the 2009 NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship Opening Round. With the win, the Cougars advance with 15 other Opening Round winners to the final site in Decatur, Ala., where the national tournament will resume with second-round play on Monday, Nov. 30.

For the second consecutive season, Azusa Pacific hosted an Opening Round contest that found its way into the NAIA's national tournament record books for single-game highs. A year ago, the Cougars tied the tournament's single-game scoring record with 10 goals in a 10-1 win over William Jessup (Calif.), and this year a pair of records were broken in the 3-goal victory. Azusa Pacific took a season-high 46 shots, breaking the previous tournament single-game record of 44 set in 2001 by Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) in a 2-1 double-overtime victory over Trinity International (Ill.).

The Cougars put 27 of those opportunities on goal, and the 24 saves for Maine-Fort Kent goalkeeper Mindy Morneault broke the NAIA's national tournament single-game saves mark of 22, set in 1995 by Georgian Court (N.J.) in a 3-1 national semifinal loss to the eventual 1995 NAIA champion Lynn (Fla.).

Azusa Pacific's constant offensive pressure put the Bengals on their heels from the opening whistle, and Lavin capitalized at the 3:56 mark when a clearance from deep in the box found her feet near the top of the box. She touched it forward, setting up a right-footed strike from 13 yards out that bounced into the goal to the far post for an early 1-0 Cougar lead. Her shot was the first of her team's 21 first-half shots, 13 of which were on goal, but Morneault made 12 of her 24 saves in the period to preserve the 1-0 score all the way into halftime.

Senior All-GSAC defender Katie Rorabaugh completed a 50th-minute penalty kick that was awarded when senior All-GSAC forward Theresa Broad was taken down in the box. The Cougars took another 25 shots in the second half, but another dozen Morneault saves in the second half kept Azusa Pacific off the scoreboard until Broad, the 2009 GSAC Player of the Year, scored from 10 yards out with less than 15 minutes remaining in the game. Sophomore forward Natalie Sun assisted the score, which was Broad's 15th of the season, by finding Broad's feet from the right side at the top of the box. Broad did the rest, maneuvering through a pair of defenders into an opening for her seventh shot of the game.

Azusa Pacific missed a pair of penalty kick chances, with Rorabaugh hitting the right post with a 31st-minute chance and Broad missing wide on a 69th-minute PK. Broad's goal was her first since Oct. 24, snapping the first 3-game scoreless drought in her 4-year Cougar career. Fourteen of the 18 Cougars who played in the field registered shots, and Broad (7 shots), Sun (6), Rorabaugh (5) and senior All-GSAC midfielder Lauren Lane (5) accounting for half (23) of their teams' 46 shot total.

Maine-Fort Kent's first and only shot of the game came on a quick counterattack less than 2 minutes into the second half. Theresa Biggs' 22-yard strike to the near post was saved easily by freshman goalkeeper Michelle Wieland, who posted her seventh shutout of the year with the win in her 11th start of the campaign. The Bengals entered the game as 1 of just 2 unbeaten teams in the NAIA, and their first loss of the season ends the campaign with a 17-1 overall mark.

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