There is no better representation for the grind of the Big Sky soccer season than the match played on Sunday between Portland State and Eastern Washington. The two teams both dropped their conference openers on Thursday were desperate for a result and at least one point in the first weekend.

In one of the better performances of the year for the Portland State women, an own goal proved to be the difference maker in a 3-2 loss to the defending champions.

Krystal de Ramos, the Vikings' leading goal scorer on the season, kept up her run of good play. The Vikings were under siege for much of the opening 10 minutes, but a quick counter attack gave the visitors the lead.

Freshman Sofi Papastamos dribbled up the middle of the field and found de Ramos on a run up the right side. She took one dribble and fired to the left post, inching the ball past both the goalkeeper and the post to give Portland State the 1-0 lead.

The counter attack continued to create chances for PSU, but the pressure applied by the Eastern Washington offense would prove to be too much to bear, despite an outstanding performance from Abbie Faingold. The senior made five saves in the first half alone to bring her to 200 career saves, the third best mark in PSU history.

"Abbie was excellent per usual today," head coach Katie Burton said. "She seems to surprise other teams with her abilities and athleticism. She has the ability to play at a very high level after her collegiate career if she keeps performing the way she has been."

The Eagles had 10 shots and eight corner kicks in the first half alone and found the equalizer in the 39th minute.

It didn't take long for Eastern to take their first lead of the match after the halftime break. The Eagles sent a cross in that took an unfortunate deflection off a Viking defender. The own goal gave the Eagles the 2-1 lead.

Taylor Matheny then added on to the lead for Eastern Washington less than 10 minutes later. She fired a curling ball past Abbie Faingold for the third score of the day for EWU.

Portland State then took control of the possession, refusing to go down without a fight to the end. Morgan Matthews pulled them back within a goal in the 58th minute. Papastamos slid a ball to Matthews just outside the box. She curled a ball into the top-right corner of the goal from about 25 yards out to cut the Eagles' lead to one.

The fight continued for Portland State, who attempted all four of their corners in the second half. They pressured the Eagles' backline and forced goalkeeper Hadley Bezon to make a couple of saves, but it wasn't enough in the end.

The Vikings' offense showed significant improvement from Friday night's loss to Idaho. PSU attempted 11 shots and had four corner kicks. They put five of the shots on goal. Eastern Washington had 18 shots, half of them on goal, and 10 corner kicks.

"We have a growth mindset," Burton said. "We are constantly trying to build possession skills and learn how to be dangerous in the final third. We are seeing certain players develop chemistry together. This was very apparent today."

Portland State falls to 0-2 in conference play with the loss. The opening weekend was always going to be difficult though. Idaho, who beat PSU on Friday, also won on Sunday and now leads the conference. Eastern Washington are the two-time defending Big Sky champs and were picked to win the conference again this year in the coaches poll.

The losses make next weekend at home all the more important. The Vikings will welcome Weber State and Idaho State to Hillsboro Stadium. The matches on Friday and Sunday will both be played at 1 p.m.

MATCH NOTES: Portland State now leads the all-time series 14-8-2 over Eastern Washington … Abbie Faingold made her 200th career save in the match. She is the third Viking goalkeeper to reach that mark … Faingold also went over 4,000 career minutes played this weekend … Sofi Papastamos recorded her first career assist in the game, then added a second later in the match … Krystal de Ramos has scored in three of the last five matches … Portland State entered the match undefeated when scoring multiple goals in a game.