Game 5 – Western Oregon at No. 1 Western Washington
4 p.m. - Saturday, Sept. 16
Harrington Field | Bellingham, Wash.
Live Stream | Live Stats | Tickets
MONMOUTH, Ore.—Fresh off their first win of the season, the Western Oregon University women's soccer team will open GNAC competition with a road match at No. 1-ranked and defending NCAA DII national champion Western Washington University on Saturday. Western Oregon's (1-3-0) kick off against the Vikings is set for 4 p.m. at Harrington Field. The match is the lone contest for the Wolves this week.
ABOUT WESTERN WASHINGTON (3-0-0): The Vikings will play on the road at Colorado State-Pueblo on Wednesday before facing the Wolves… WWU has won 27 straight matches for the fourth-longest winning streak in NCAA DII history… The Wolves went 24-0-1 last season and outscored its opponents 21-5 in seven postseason games en route to the NCAA DII national title… WWU has outscored its opponents 11-2 this season after a 1-0 win against Metropolitan State-Denver on Sunday.
LAST WEEK: The Wolves went 1-1 last week in a trip to face two opponents in Hawaii… WOU fell 3-1 to Hawaii Pacific on Sept. 8 and returned with a 2-0 win against Chaminade on Sept. 10 for its first win and first shutout of the season… Freshman
Alyssa Tomasini scored both goals in the second half while sophomore
Caitlin Kastelic stopped six shots for the shutout in goal for WOU.
TOMASINO NAMED GNAC POW: With two goals in the second half against Chaminade, freshman
Alyssa Tomasini was named the GNAC Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 11… Tomasini broke the stalemate in the 64th minute against the Silverswords and returned with her second goal of the day in the 81st minute to preserve the first win of the season for the Wolves.
WOU ATTACK: Four different WOU players have scored a goal so far this season with freshman Alyssa Tomaini the lone player to find the net more than once through the first four contests… The team's four assists have come from four different players while junior defender
Dana Jacobs and freshman forward
Kennedy Clay have notched one goal and one assist each for the Wolves.
IN GOAL: Sophomore
Caitlin Kastelic has played all 373 minutes for the Wolves between the pipes… Kastelic holds a 2.17 goals allowed per match average and a .654 save percentage… With 1,540 minutes logged a year ago, Kastelic played all but 10 minutes in goal during her freshman campaign for the Wolves in 2016.
RETURNERS: The Wolves return eight players that started at least one match a year ago, including senior defender
Kai Mahuka, who got the starting nod in 15 contests in 2016… In the midfield,
Meli Cortez made eight starts,
Dacia Alexander six and
Selene Konyn five… Defender
Kaitlin Poe started four contests on the back line... The Wolves graduated players that scored 13 of the team's 16 goals a year ago, including
Taylor Higa, who led the squad with seven goals and four assists.
GNAC PRESASON POLL: With 23 points in the poll of the nine head coaches, the Wolves were picked to finish eighth in the GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll… The Wolves ranked higher than Saint Martin's (11 points) while being edged in points by Northwest Nazarene (26 points)… Defending national champion Western Washington earned all nine first-place votes for 91 points and was followed by Central Washington (62 points) and Concordia (58 points).
2016 RECAP: The Wolves went 5-11-1 overall in 2016… With a 2-9-1 record in GNAC play, WOU placed seventh in the league standings… WOU opened the year with back-to-back wins against George Fox and the Academy of Art… The Wolves experienced two overtime games a year ago, taking a loss at Saint Martin's on Oct. 6 and returning with a double-overtime win at Concordia on Oct. 18.
