UND star forward Katie Moller looked across the field Friday afternoon and saw Rachel Lusby standing in net for the Portland Pilots.
Moller and Lusby are both seniors from the Portland, Ore., area.
They grew up playing Olympic Development Program soccer together and went against each other in club soccer.
"I had no idea she was on the team," Moller said. "So that was a fun surprise."
Well, there was one part about seeing Lusby that wasn't fun.
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Lusby stopped all six shots she faced-including a breakaway attempt by Moller in the second half-to preserve a 1-0 Pilots win over the Fighting Hawks at East Grand Forks Senior High field.
Lusby made key saves on point-blank chances for Moller, Megan Wright and Cassie Giddings in the second half.
"It was interesting for me, because these were the girls I grew up playing with," Moller said. "It was kind of cool to be able to play against them in college, but it was still just like, 'You're on my turf. I want to take it at you. I want to make trouble for you.' It was a fun challenge. I definitely wish we could have put it away today."
Considering Portland is a traditionally strong team-the Pilots won NCAA Division I national championships in 2002 and 2005-UND coach Chris Logan was pleased with his team's final nonconference performance.
"We just couldn't put the ball in the net," Logan said. "We just competed against a really, really good team. I think that's something we can build off of. I'm proud of the effort and the performance. We just didn't execute. It just didn't go in."
That has become a theme at home for the Fighting Hawks. They have outscored opponents 3-2 in three home games, while they've outscored opponents 22-0 in six road games.
"The nice thing is that today we showed we can play with anybody," Logan said. "It's not as just we sat and defended. The shot count was even and the chance count was probably more in our favor. It's disappointing not to get the result but I'm happy with how we played against a very good team."
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