Dixie State opened the 2016 regular season on a sour note as the Trailblazers were shut out at Concordia Portland, 2-0, Thursday night at a soggy Tuominen Yard.

The Cavaliers opened the scoring in the 21^st minute as Sydney Van Steenberge tucked home a low shot into the left side of the goal to stake Concordia to a 1-0 lead. The CU kept the one-goal advantage until midway through the 86^th minute when Kayla Braunthal took a quick pass and netted a shot from the middle of the box to put the match away.

Concordia outshot DSU 16-12 overall, including a 9-3 edge on goal. Junior forward Darian McCloy (Herriman, Utah/Herriman HS) and Alexis Torres (Tucson, Ariz./Palo Verde HS) paced the Trailblazers with four shots apiece, while the duo accounted for all three DSU shots on frame. Senior netminder Angelica Ciucci (Stockholm, Sweden/Thorildsplans Gymnasium) was credited with seven saves in a losing effort.

Despite the disappointing outcome to start the season, DSU Head Coach Kacey Bingham took away severall positives from the result.

"We were happy to get such a high-level game this early in the season," Coach Bingham said. "Concordia is a great team that challenged us and exposed some of our weaknesses. The biggest downfall was playing in rainy weather, which affected our quality of play, but gave us a good learning opportunity. The team had a positive talk after the game and is already looking forward to Saturday."

Dixie State will return to the pitch Saturday with a match against Seattle Pacific, which will be played at CU-Portland beginning at 11 a.m. (PT).