SUPERIOR, Wis. – The 2021 season comes with raised expectations for the Yellowjacket women's soccer team. For the first time in program history, they enter a campaign as the odds-on favorite to win a conference championship.
 
Wednesday afternoon the Yellowjackets kicked off the season at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex against a solid Saint Mary's University club. In addition to starting the season with a victory, the Yellowjackets were also seeking their first-ever win against Saint Mary's.

This day, however, belonged to the Cardinals. Saint Mary's scored once early in the first half and once late in the second half on the way to a 2-0 win over the Yellowjackets before an opening day crowd of 88 on a glorious afternoon in Superior.
 
Saint Mary's opened the scoring less than six minutes in when Jordyn Matthews found Haddy Falkman sprinting down the middle of the pitch, and Falkman's shot eluded Yellowjacket goalkeeper Jenna Lang (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) to make it 1-0.
 
As the second half opened the Yellowjackets had several opportunities to tie the match, the best coming when Claire Smith (Hayward, Wis./Hayward) was denied from point-blank range in the right side of the box.

Saint Mary's got an insurance marker in the 75th minute when Falkman fed Brooklyn McKinney who scored into the upper right corner to make it a 2-0 final.
 
Lang, the first-year goalkeeper made some key saves in her first career match. She finished the day with eight saves. Alexis Nguyen got the shutout at the other end for Saint Mary's.

The Yellowjackets (0-1-0, 0-0-0 UMAC) return to action Sunday when they host Lakeland College. The opening kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex.