Wheaton, Ill. -- The Wheaton women's soccer team was back in action at Joe Bean Stadium on Tuesday evening after their 2-1 win against Adrian a few days prior. Unfortunately for the Thunder, this match did not end with the same outcome, as the visiting Knights of Calvin University left 2-0 winners on the night.

Wheaton has a successful history against Calvin in women's soccer, having beaten the Knights 16 times over the years. But the visitors from Grand Rapids were determined to flip the script in the latest installment, and they were successful in doing so thanks to their high-octane attacking play. The Knights came into the match having already scored 24 goals in the young season, and the Wheaton defensive unit knew that they had their work cut out for them facing this opponent. Despite a sleepy opening 15 minutes, Calvin soon ramped up the pressure and began peppering the Wheaton goal in the hopes of registering the breakthrough. Thunder goalkeeper Lauren Ketchum had one of the busiest nights of her Wheaton career, as she was repeatedly called on to make key saves and came up with a number of important interventions to prevent Calvin from taking a first-half lead. The visitors' high line of defense threatened to be their undoing, with Wheaton frequently lofting long passes over the top with the aim of catching their opponents out on the counterattack. But Calvin's goalkeeper and defenders communicated with each other and anticipated Wheaton's movements well enough to prevent the home side from creating many substantive chances in the first half. 

After a 0-0 halftime scoreline, the opening goal finally arrived in the 61st minute when Calvin's Jessica Paulson charged towards the byline and cut the ball back into the box before it could trickle out of play for a Wheaton goal kick. Her pass took a touch off of a Wheaton defender before sitting up nicely for Sophie Mueller to score her team-high eighth goal of the campaign. Given the flow of the match up to this point, it was no surprise to see the visitors take the lead, and Calvin were determined to make their advantage count. Just three minutes later, it was Mueller's turn to play the role of provider, as her layoff found Elizabeth Williams at the top of the box. Williams fired a stinging strike into the roof of the net and Calvin found the two-goal cushion they were looking for. After that, it was merely a case of seeing the game out for the visitors. Wheaton's best look at goal all night came right in between the two Calvin strikes, when the Thunder's Audrey Sexson slammed a shot off of the crossbar from just inside the penalty area and the ball rebounded into the arms of the Calvin goalkeeper who did her best to claim it before any Wheaton attackers could steer it home. The remaining half hour was relatively smooth sailing for the Knights, as Wheaton tried to slice into Calvin's lead, but were ultimately unsuccessful in doing so.

The full match statistics show a decisive advantage for Calvin in terms of shots, with the Knights creating 23 efforts overall and 12 on target. Wheaton managed seven attempts of their own, three of which were on frame. Sexson ended the night with ten saves to her name compared to only three for her opposite number. Wheaton did have more corner kicks, however, with seven taken, two more than Calvin had on the night.

Next up for the Thunder is a four-match road trip, starting with a contest against WashU in St. Louis on September 24th. Wheaton's next home match will be their conference home opener when they face off against Illinois Wesleyan on October 9th.