Wheaton, Ill. -- After kicking off the 2026 Bob Baptista Invitational with a 2-0 victory over Aurora University on Friday night, the Wheaton women's soccer team returned to Bean Stadium for a match against Friday's other victorious team and another NACC program, Dominican University. The Stars scored an early goal and controlled tonight's match with a strong defensive performance to claim a narrow 1-0 road win and improve to 2-0 on the year. The Thunder's record is now 1-2 following a busy first week of competition.
Dominican put five goals past Greenville University in the opening match of the invitational, and the River Forest visitors continued their confident attacking approach in the opening minutes of tonight's contest. Their first shot on target came just two minutes after kick-off, and the Stars earned two corner kicks before taking the lead in the 14th minute. A driving dribble at the right byline resulted in a cut-back to the near post that was blocked by Wheaton without being fully cleared away, and Dominican's center midfielder was on hand to quickly dispatch the loose ball into the bottom right corner.
The rest of the first half proved to be a cagey affair, with neither side troubling the other to a great degree, and Dominican's game management resulted in its 1-0 lead remaining intact heading into the break. The visitors had a look shortly after the restart to double their lead, but
Lydia Martin thwarted this attempt. The Stars did not allow a shot on target from the home side until the 64th minute when
Liza Timm tested the opposition shot-stopper from outside the box. Seven minutes later,
Nahren Eshw stung the keeper's palms again. But Dominican did not concede any more attempts on goal from that point on and managed to see out the 1-0 victory to continue its impressive start to the new campaign.
The guests took twice as many shots as the home side on Saturday and directed four attempts on target while limiting Wheaton to just two. The Stars also earned a 5-2 advantage in corner kick opportunites and a 54-46% edge in ball possession. Martin made three saves and played all 90 minutes in the Thunder goal tonight.
After a three-game week at home to begin the new season, the Wheaton women will hit the road for the first time this fall. The Thunder are set to travel to Washington state for games at Pacific Lutheran on Thursday and Puget Sound next Saturday.
