The Spring Arbor University women's soccer team continued to play stingy defense Saturday, shutting out the #2 team in the Crossroads League, Huntington University 1-0.

The Cougars did not play a particularly sharp first half, but still managed to out-shoot the hosts 7-2 in the opening frame of play.

After some halftime adjustments, Spring Arbor was able to put together a much better second half, launching 10 shots to Huntington's two and creating several good chances to score goals.

Junior Ashley DeNio connected on her fourth game winning goal of the season when she took a feed from classmate Karly Linton and drilled it past Huntington goalkeeper Samantha Barclay in the 53rd minute.  DeNio also rang the Huntington post earlier in the match.

Spring Arbor's defensive unit of Hannah Adams, Courtney Harrison, Becca Lynn, Cheyenne Martinez-Trevino and Kristina Sobel as well as freshman goalkeeper Sarah Yancer made sure that the tally would stand up, stymieing the Huntington attackers for the entirety of the contest.

"Definitely not our best performance today," commented SAU head coach Jason Crist.  "Huntington is a good team that did a nice job of condensing space, and frankly, we just did not play very intelligently in the first half.  We did a good job making adjustments at halftime and were able to clean things up to some extent in the second half.  With the Crossroads League being so competitive this year, we just have to be sharper in possession than we were today.  I am confident that the ladies will respond well in our next contest."

Spring Arbor is now 13-1-1 and 6-0 in the Crossroads League.  With one more league win SAU would lock up at least a share of a second consecutive conference title.

The NAIA #6 ranked Cougars will be back in action on Wednesday when they make a second consecutive trip to Marion, Indiana to take on Indiana Wesleyan University.  IWU has been in and out of the NAIA National top 25 this season.  The match is scheduled to kick off at 7:00 p.m.