U-Hi stays perfect
Before taking the field at Ferris, the University Titans already knew they were Greater Spokane League girls soccer champions for the second time in school history.
By making good on their one scoring opportunity during the game, they achieved an unbeaten regular season for the first time.
U-Hi (15-0 overall and 13-0 in league with 38 points) defeated the third-place Saxons (10-3, 29) 1-0 on a precision second-half play that had an imprecise, if winning, conclusion.
A wide-open shot to the goal corner by sophomore Abby Goss instead pinged off the goal post.
The ball fortuitously landed back in front of the goal, where a charging Rachel Lopez smacked it home.
“It was a great play,” said U-Hi coach Kevin Houston. “It was probably an ugly game, because we’d been lacking passing through. But at least on that play we actually worked the ball the way we can.”
Lopez said she took a pass from the right side, saw Goss in front of her and played the ball through to the outside.
“She cut through all of them, and shot with someone coming up on her,” Lopez said. “I was running toward the goal just because I was and saw it hit off the bar. I ran through the ball and luckily it didn’t go over (the goal).”
The match was played mainly in the Ferris end of the field and was scoreless until the 48th minute. Neither team was able to connect on passes, although there were some nifty individual moves.
Neither team had another scoring threat.
U-Hi’s first GSL championship was in 1998 when the team went 13-2. The last two seasons the Titans have finished third and second, but have qualified for state.
Gonzaga Prep and Ferris both lost matches on Wednesday to assure that U-Hi would win the league and play in the District 8 4A championship match at Spokane Falls Community College on Wednesday. Second-seeded G-Prep will be U-Hi’s opponent.
“We thought we’d have to beat Ferris for the title,” said Houston. “Coming in, part of the pressure was relieved a little bit. But now we were playing for an undefeated season and a little piece of U-Hi history.”
The remainder of the six-team District 4A field is set. Playoffs begin Monday for the third through sixth seeds (Ferris, Mead, Shadle Park, Central Valley) at SFCC.
The District 8 3A is Tuesday among East Valley, Cheney, West Valley and North Central. Match times all three days are 5 and 7 p.m.
In other regular-season final matches, G-Prep (11-2, 33 points) won a 1-0 home shootout over Mead (9-4, 27). … CV (9-4, 26) won at Cheney (4-9) 2-0, and host Shadle (9-4, 26) beat East Valley (7-6, 21) 1-0 for the other two 4A district berths. … Mt. Spokane (8-5, 25) beat visiting West Valley (3-10, 9) 2-0. … Maggi Yates scored twice as Lewis and Clark (5-8, 16) won at North Central (2-11, 6) 2-1. … Clarkston (1-12, 3) won its first match of the year, 4-0 over Rogers (0-13).
Volleyball
Renee Before had seven kills and four blocks to lead Shadle Park (10-3) to a sweep of host Cheney (1-12) in the final GSL match of the season.
Cross country
Brad Serdar (18 minutes, 29.26 seconds) and Ryan Adkins (18:29.57) led eight Reardan Indians in the top 12 spots at the boys Bi-County championships at Northwest Christian. The Indians took the team title with 22 points. … Reardan also took the girls title with 25 points. Liberty’s Andrea Collins (22:10.82) won individual honors.
•Brian Angove (16:28) won the boys Panorama League championship meet at St. George’s High School, leading the host Dragons to the team title with a perfect score of 15 points. … St. George’s also dominated the girls meet, scoring 16 points. Cordelia Revells (21:05) earned individual honors.
Hockey
Conner Olsted, Brian Cloufe and Issack Friesen each scored for the Spokane Flyers in a 6-3 loss to host Queen City in a Northern Pacific Hockey League game.