Holy Cross College women’s soccer (3-4) is set to take on Olivet Nazarene University (2-0-3) Saturday at Saints Field.
Holy Cross opened the season with a winless August where the Saints did not score a goal before beating Goshen 3-0 to open its September slate. That win sparked a much stronger month for the Saints, who went 3-1, letting up only two goals vs. seven of their own.
Now, the Saints are in the midst of a two-game winning streak coming off wins against conference foes Judson University and Saint Ambrose University. In those games the Saints are outscoring their opponents four goals to two, with junior Frances Parks leading the way with three goals of her own.
Olivet Nazarene opened its season with a 1-0-1 record in August and currently holds a 1-0-2 record in September, with its two most recent contests ending in ties.
Both the Saints and Tigers have played against Goshen and St. Ambrose in the current 2025–26 season.
Holy Cross beat both shared opponents, producing four goals while allowing none in the matchups combined, while Olivet Nazarene tied both.
Currently, both teams have not lost in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC), as the Saints hold a 2-0 conference record while the Tigers are 0-0-2. That 2-0 start to conference play is the first time since the 2020–21 season that the Saints won their first two conference games.
“Good preparation for conference play has helped us start 2-0,” Holy Cross women’s soccer head coach Duma Magagula said. “We played very good and [the] ranked opponents our first three games, they exposed us a lot. That gave us something to work on and make sure we fix it before conference play.”
In August, the Tigers had both junior goalkeeper Meegan Randall and junior midfielder Aaliyah Racadio-Kahoohanohano named defensive and offensive player of the week in the CCAC, respectively. Junior goalkeeper Helen Linares was named CCAC defensive player of the week on Sept. 16, becoming the most recent Tiger to do so.
Holy Cross players have been nominated seven times for CCAC Women’s Soccer offensive or defensive player of the week this season, but none have earned the distinction yet.
The last time the two teams met was in October of the 2024–25 season, resulting in a 1-1 tie at Saints Field.
“What we learned from that game is that we can be consistent enough to play for 90 minutes,” Magagula said. “Can we manage games better when we have the lead and lastly believing in ourselves that we can compete with these teams. We have never beat Olivet in our program history but to come this close shows how far we have come as a program. We are hoping to build off that.”
The game will be played at 7 p.m. at Saints Field.
