Chicago, Ill. - Paced by two goals from Laura Karsten, the Wheaton College women's soccer team opened conference play with a 5-0 shutout of North Park University on Saturday.

The Thunder improved to 11-2 overall and 1-0 in the CCIW. The Vikings fell to 4-9 overall, 1-2 in conference.

North Park opened the game by packing its defense, keeping 11 players behind the ball for the dual purpose of stifling the Wheaton attack and then creating counter-attacks of their own.

Instead, the Thunder dissected the defense with precise passing and made long runs under passes to spring themselves. Wheaton's formidable speed forced North Park to clear many of the attacks off the goal line, which set up a multitude of corner kicks.

The Thunder broke through on a corner kick set piece in the 14th minute. Katelyn Kishkunas sent a ball into the box that Laura Karsten redirected into the back of the net.

Karsten added to her goal total only three minutes later. Another Kishkunas corner kick went into the box, glanced off the swinging foot of Ali Kopelman, and came straight to Karsten's sliding kick to make it 2-0.

The 27th minute yielded another goal as Karsten fed Jaime Orewiler at the top of the box. Orewiler took it off her left foot, spun off her defender and cranked a wide-open strike with her right foot for the score.

The second half continued much like the first. In the 48th minute, Kishkunas took a free kick from 30 yards out and the ball found Kopelman all alone behind the defense for a point-blank goal.

The Thunder continued the onslaught of shots on goal throughout the game, hitting crossbars and putting the ball just over the cross bar on several attempts. Brittany Bergh took one shot that hit the inside of the post and flew back across the width of the goal and out.

The final score came with 13:35 left in the match off another corner kick. The ball went through confused traffic in front of the goal, but Clark collected on the outside and scored right footed unassisted.

Wheaton is back on the road at Carthage College for a 5:00 PM game on Wednesday.