NAMPA, Idaho – One unlucky touch of the ball cost the Crusaders.

A hand ball call in the goal box led to a decisive penalty kick, as the Northwest Nazarene women's soccer team outplayed Central Washington but fell to the Wildcats, 1-0, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action Saturday on the NNU campus.

"Right now I feel like we're so unlucky," said NNU coach Mary Trigg. "I don't think we deserve to win more than we did today, we had a lot of chances and we kept fighting hard.

"I'm so proud of the way we fought and the way we're coming together. We're playing good soccer," Trigg added.

The only disappointing part of the day was the final outcome, as both teams played evenly in a scoreless first half.

Then, with 2 minutes, 47 seconds gone in the second half the decisive moment struck as the Crusaders (1-9-3 overall, 0-7-3 GNAC) inadvertently touched the ball with a hand in their own goal box.

The call resulted in a penalty kick that Central Washington's Reilly Retz tucked into the lower left corner of the goal.

Down 1-0, NNU came on offensively in waves, looking to tie the score, racking up chance after chance, but no goals.

NNU outshot the Wildcats 13-11 in the game, and 8-6 in the second half, but never managed to get a ball past Central Washington goalkeeper Kayla Lipston.

"We had chance after chance, but when we don't finish our chances we leave it up to a frustrating PK call to determine a game," Trigg said. "If we would have finished our chances, that wouldn't matter.

"For us to be able to look like we did in the second half against them is very promising for this program for the future," Trigg added.

NNU goalie Argia Phillips finished with three saves in the loss while Lipston made six saves in goal for the Wildcats (9-4-0, 8-2-0), who remain in second place in the GNAC race with the win.

The Crusaders return to action Thursday when they play at Simon Fraser.