Soccer notebook: Area teams ruled nonconference play
Three area collegiate soccer teams have emerged from nonconference play with a full head of steam.
The Washington State Cougars and Eastern Washington Eagles women and the Whitworth Pirates men have just two losses among them after enjoying a stellar preseason. The Eagles and Pirates can thank some home-grown stars for their early success.
The Cougars are off a 2-0 loss at Portland but are 7-1 going into their Pac-12 Conference opener Sunday at Arizona State.
“I’m disappointed to lose the way we did today,” first-year coach Todd Shulenberger said. “We had chances early to take control of the game and didn’t capitalize. We’ll bounce back and get ready for Pac-12 play.”
The Cougars have outscored opponents 16-7, with Kaitlyn Johnson and Kourtney Guetlein combining for five goals and six assists. Through eight matches, keeper Ella Dederick has made 34 saves and built a 0.85 goals-against average.
At Eastern Washington, second-year coach Chad Bodnar has the Eagles off to a 6-1-1 record following their 1-0 win last week at Illinois-Chicago.
In that match, former Lewis and Clark High star Chloe Williams notched her seventh goal of the year off a feed from Central Valley product Savannah Hoekstra.
The win gave Eastern four consecutive wins for the first time in program history. With their success on the road this season, Eastern has won 11 true road games in two seasons under Bodnar.
Before that, EWU had won 24 true road games in the previous 16 years.
“I think that just shows the players’ grit and determination,” said Bodnar on his team’s nine consecutive road wins this season. “We have taken some tough road trips and we do that to prepare for what’s coming in conference because we have a lot of tough road trips in conference.”
Next up for the Eagles: Big Sky Conference matches this weekend at Weber State and Idaho State.
The Whitworth men’s team is picking up from last year, when the Pirates reached the Sweet 16 of the Division III playoffs.
After a 2-0 win at Linfield last weekend, Whitworth is 2-0 in the Northwest Conference and 6-0 overall entering this weekend’s home matches against Puget Sound and PLU.
Senior forward Karl Muelheims, who has a conference-leading seven goals and two assists this season, gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead at Linfield off a pass from Aaron Yanagi.
Muelheims, a St. George’s product, was voted the Hero Sports D3 Men’s Soccer Hero of the Week a week earlier, after totaling five goals and an assist during a pair of wins over Northwest University (Washington) and the University of Minnesota Morris at the Whitworth Soccer Classic on Sept. 4-5.