Redemption is a powerful motivator, and you’re unlikely to find a team more motivated to win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s soccer tournament than Western.
The tournament is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, at Seattle’s Interbay Stadium, with top-seed and undefeated Western (11-0-3 conference, 12-2-5 overall) playing No. 4 Western Oregon and No. 2 Seattle Pacific and No. 3 Simon Fraser in the following semifinal.
Winners meet at 1 p.m. Saturday for the conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. Simply put: Lose on Thursday, and Western’s path to the tournament is fraught with obstacles. Make it to Saturday, and they have a better shot to make it as one of four at-large teams.
“I’m really excited because I feel like we need redemption from last year,” said junior first-team all-conference defender Asia Hardin. “I’ve been waiting all year for this.”
Last year, the Vikings entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed and ranked No. 4 in the NCAA West Region. Oh, and they were the defending 2022 NCAA Division II national champions.
They were upended in the GNAC final by a hot Simon Fraser and didn’t even make the national tournament field. This year, vows Hardin, is different.
“We are a completely different team, in my opinion,” she said. “And I feel like we are very ready for this, and we’ve gotten so much better since the beginning of this preseason” where they suffered the season’s only two losses. Several key players including eventual conference-scoring leader Kyrsten McGuffey, a senior just named GNAC newcomer of the year, and first-team all-conference sophomore midfielder Mie Carns needed time to click.
The GNAC will be no pushover. Seattle Pacific and Western Oregon were responsible for the Vikings’ three ties in conference play this season. Memories still burn over the fact Simon Fraser sent them home last year. Motivation? The Vikings have it in abundance.
“I feel like the new players are kind of nervous and they don’t really know what to expect, but me and all the people in my class and other returners — we’re pumped for this,” Hardin said. “We know how it feels to lose, and we don’t want to feel that way again…The combination of knowing how amazing it is to win and knowing how much it sucks to lose, (we are) just wanting to accomplish that again.”
(Tickets to the GNAC tournament can be purchased at GNACTickets.com. Watch a live webcast on YouTube on GNAC.tv)
BY THE NUMBERS
3 – times women’s soccer player and junior midfielder Morgan Manalili has been named first-team all-GNAC, leading the league in assists (8). Manalili’s two goals were each game-winners
4 – different lineups in Western’s first four men’s basketball games due to injury and 10 new players.
7 – men’s soccer players scheduled to be honored on Senior Night Thursday, Nov. 14 at Harrington Field, prior to Western’s season-ending game against nationally ranked Western Oregon. They are Adan Fernandez, Kaydin Wall, Eric Bunnell, Diego Alvarado, Andrew Rotter, Jacob Sundberg and Lucas Hakamada
5 – women’s basketball players scoring in double-digits in the team’s first win of the season, an 84-59 thumping of Cal State East Bay Nov. 12 in the Vikings’ (1-2) season home debut
QUOTABLE
“No better feeling in the world. Even more than that I’m really happy that a senior like Will (Wilson) trusts me at the end of the game to make a play, make something happen.” – Aidan Rice, freshman, after his buzzer-beating 3-pointer in his first career college game lifted the Vikings to a 91-89 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills Nov. 8 at Carver Arena.
WHO’S HOT
Volleyball – Western brings a four-match win streak back to Carver with its last two home matches of the season – Thursday, Nov. 14 vs. Central Washington and Saturday, Nov. 16 vs. Northwest Nazarene. After a rough start on a team with no seniors, the third-place Vikings (10-4 conference, 11-9 overall) have crawled back into contention for a shot at a postseason berth if they win the final four matches of the season.
WHO’S NOT
Men’s soccer – A 1-0 loss via penalty kick to Montana State Billings Nov. 9 ended Western’s seven-game win streak and all but torpedoed the Vikings’ chance for an at-large NCAA Division II tournament bid. Second-place Western, which outperformed its preseason No. 3 poll prediction, is 9-5-3 overall, 7-3-1 GNAC going into Nov. 14’s season-ender with Western Oregon, which clinched the GNAC title.
HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME AWARD
To Billings, Montana, where on Nov. 9 four different Western teams gathered to play two soccer games (women won, men lost) and run cross-country in the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships (women’s and men’s teams each placed second). Women’s soccer players spent part of their game-day morning cheering on Western’s cross country teams at Amend Park, while Emily Rice, women’s soccer defender and member of the 2022 national championship squad, watched the livestream broadcast from Carver Arena as younger brother, freshman guard Aidan, sank the winning shot in the men’s basketball game back home that night.
BEST BETS
Saturday, Nov. 16, 1 p.m. – Women’s soccer GNAC Finals, Seattle. Top-seed Western (11-0-3 conference) would have had to win Thursday’s semifinal against No. 4 Western Oregon (too late as of this writing) to reach the final against other semifinal winner from No. 2 Seattle Pacific vs. No. 3 Simon Fraser. 7 p.m. – Volleyball vs. Northwest Nazarene, Bellingham. Final home game and Alumni Night for the third-place Vikings (11-9 overall, 10-4 conference).
Monday, Nov. 18, 4 p.m. – NCAA Division II women’s soccer selection show, ncaa.com
Thursday, Nov. 21, time TBA – Women’s and men’s soccer at NCAA first- and second rounds begin, campus site TBA. If Western women make the field, they are unlikely to host.
Saturday, Nov. 23, 10 a.m. – Cross Country at NCAA Championships, Sacramento
Tickets. See wwuvikings.com/Tickets or in person one hour prior to game time.
Parking. Free for sports. For volleyball and basketball, lot 19G for general audience; 9G for season ticket holders. For soccer, C lots on south campus. See the map at wwu.edu/parking.
Can’t make it? Stream it
All home games and most road contests are streamed via a live and free YouTube webcast. Find links online at cascadiadaily.com.
If you have a smart TV, search for “WWU Athletics” on YouTube.
We want to hear from you
Got a WWU sports-related news tip or interesting item for this notebook, or a good story idea? We’re all ears. Send to newstips@cascadiadaily.com, subject line: WWU sports notebook
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
