The FAU women’s soccer team (1-0-0) picked up where they left off from the spring Thursday evening, beating the University of Oakland (0-1-0) 3-0 at the FAU Stadium in Howard Schnellenberger Field to begin the fall season.

FAU found its first shot on target in the 22nd minute when redshirt junior midfielder Gi Krstec took a volley shot, but senior goalkeeper Noemi Stadelmann caught it before the ball even had a chance of going in.

One of the better performers of the first half came from Owl debutant Bri Austin, who showed her strength and aggressiveness against the Oakland defense as they couldn’t prevent the graduate transfer forward from creating multiple goal-scoring opportunities for FAU.

Austin’s efforts would eventually be rewarded in the 26th minute when she passed the ball to freshman forward Kaylin Johnston. Johnston, who also made her debut when she entered the game three minutes prior, kicked the ball past Stadelmann to the right side of the net to earn her first goal for the Owls.

After conceding the goal, Oakland tried to create chances to equalize but junior defender Amanda Martin stopped plenty of them from coming to fruition with multiple interceptions of the ball.

When the first half concluded, FAU took nine shots including five on target. Oakland, on the other hand, only managed one shot.

Most of the second half was relatively quiet for both teams. Possession constantly changed between the Owls and Grizzlies as they continued looking for possible scoring chances.

FAU, understanding that its 1-0 lead wasn’t enough, insisted on finding more shots to take while having its defense keep the Oakland offense at bay.

The Owls got their wish in the 79th minute, thanks to sophomore defender Hunter Koziara and redshirt freshman forward Mia Sennes getting the ball to sophomore midfielder Molly Setsma, who slid it to the left side of the goal to extend the lead to two.

FAU added one last goal to what was already a great performance for the team in the 85th minute. Thanks to a throw-in by Koziara, Austin earned the goal she was looking for the whole game to finish her performance on a high note.

The Owls will head to Coral Gables, Fla. to face the Miami Hurricanes on Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. It will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.

Richard Pereira is the Sports Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Rich26Pereira.