Senior Katherine Polido's corner kick ended up in the goal with 11:31 to play in the first half and Brooke Hessney scored an insurance goal with 31:05 left in regulation as St. Lawrence University's women's soccer team pulled even at 2-2-1 on the season with a 2-0 win over Nazareth College in its home opener on Saturday.

The Saints combined a solid defensive effort with timely scoring for the win and will be out for a sweep of their home opening weekend when they host Elmira at 1 pm. Sunday.

"This is a great result for our team," said St. Lawrence head coach Franco Bari. "Over the last few years, Nazareth has had our number. But today, we were able to bring a lot of intensity and fire which led to a great performance."

The Saints scored on the game's first corner kick as Polido hit a hard curving ball from the right corner and while Nazareth keeper Abbie Carey was able to catch it while leaping in the air, her momentum when she landed carried her across the goal line giving the Saints the goal at the 33:29 mark.

St. Lawrence, which had several outstanding scoring chances in the first half, outshooting Nazareth 13-3 with Carey making five of her eight saves in the first 45 minutes, appeared to have made it 2-0 when Stephanie Sayward got to a loose ball in front of the Nazareth goal with 31:25 to go in the game and volleyed it into the net, but the goal was disallowed as the play was ruled offside. It took only 20 seconds for the Saints to score a goal that did make it to the scoreboard.

The Saints turned the ball right back around as the Golden Flyers tried to clear after the offsides and Elena Rogers crossed the ball from the right side into the goal mouth where Brooke Hessney was all alone to tap the ball into the unguarded cage for her second of the season at the 58:55 mark.

SLU nearly had a third goal when Erika Gobielle was sent away on a breakaway, but Carey charged out and smothered the ball before Gobielle could get a shot off with 15:15 to play.

Senior Abby van Geldern made five saves for her second shutout of the season and received excellent support from the Saint defensive quartet of Polido, Liz Laprade, Devon Shatkin and Corinne Werner who repeatedly turned aside the Nazareth attack at the top of the penalty area.

SLU finished with a 17-11 edge in shots and had four corner kicks to none for the Golden Flyers, who slip to 1-2-2 on the season.