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CHENEY, Wash. -- Gonzaga women's soccer began its 2015 schedule with a 2-1 exhibition victory at Eastern Washington Friday.

In front of a large crowd, the teams battled not only each other, but difficult weather as well. Under a blowing dust advisory issued by the National Weather Service, both teams started their seasons in an entertaining game. All three goals came in the first half, before the defenses settled-in in the second half.

"I was proud of our effort and today," GU Head Coach Amy Edwards said. "I thought we had great mentality in such windy conditions. It was a great opportunity for our young players to get out play, and prepare our whole team for next week and our game at Nevada."

Gonzaga had a 14-13 edge in shots, putting five on goal. The Eagles had four shots on goal. The Bulldogs also had a 3-1 advantage in corner kicks.

Christie Tombari was stellar in the GU net, making a trio of saves. Her counterpart, Mallory Taylor, also made three saves in her EWU debut.

The Zags struck first in the 17th minute. Lauren Luke was brought down a step outside of the 18-yard box and GU capitalized. Kristin Hayman struck a ball beautifully over the wall and into the upper left of the net.

Four minutes later, EWU nearly had the equalizer, but Tombari had other plans. The redshirt junior dove and snagged a ball from the feet of Delany Romero in a one-on-one opportunity inside the 18. The two squared off again just minutes later. This time Romero used a clever first touch to just get around Tombari before sliding the ball into the back of the net at the 21:32 mark.

The Zags regained the lead just before the half off of a long ball played from Sarah Carter to Sydney Anderson. With 4:41 left in the first half, Carter struck a ball from nearly midfield into the box, where Anderson headed the ball backward, while colliding with the EWU goalkeeper. Anderson put enough on it and the ball bounced into the net.

Gonzaga had a few more opportunities in the first half. Hayman earned a corner for the Zags at the 36:10 mark, but the ball in was a bit high for Carter, who had the ball skim off the top of her head. With 19:33 left to play in the first, Anderson put a nice touch on the ball from 20 yards out, but it just went over the bar. Karley Baggerly made a nice move on a defender and crossed a ball in to Anderson, but her shot was saved with 17:37 remaining in the first half.

On the defensive end, Carter disrupted an Eagle scoring opportunity at the 9:04 mark in the first half. A ball got past Tombari, but Carter was there to clear it at the line.

Six minutes into the second half, Baggerly beat a defender in a one-on-one, but her shot was stopped by Taylor. Tombari then made a save off of a header by Savannah Hoekstra with 26:12 left in the match. Tombari's next save, 10 minutes later, may have been the highlight of the match.

Eastern Washington freshman Devan Talley did a nice job dribbling through the GU defense and made a great strike on goal, but Tombari made a clutch save. The Spokane Valley native leapt to her left and stretched out to grab the incoming shot. Not even a minute later, Talley received a red card at midfield, the lone booking of the game.

The Bulldogs travel to Nevada for their regular season-opener Aug. 21. Live coverage of the match will be available on GoZags.com. The game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Pacific Time.