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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

West Valley girls soccer team beats Cheney 5-1

West Valley's Ashley Meyer (7) moves the ball past Cheney for a score on Tuesday at West Valley High School. (Tyler Tjomsland)

Home games during Homecoming Week tend to be a tad bit special, but Tuesday’s girls soccer game at West Valley, with the Eagles taking on Great Northern League rival Cheney, had an extra something going for it.

It was Jenna Sullens’ birthday.

The senior midfielder was last year’s GNL offensive player of the year and Sullens has picked up where she left off a year ago, when she led West Valley into the state Class 2A quarterfinals.

“I think she’s even better this year,” West Valley assistant Dirk Linton said.

Tuesday she spearheaded a 5-1 win over the Blackhawks on a gorgeous afternoon for soccer.

The Eagles put together a dominating performance in the first half against Cheney, spending almost the entire 40 minutes on the Blackhawks’ side of the field.

Senior forward Kiana Nagata, attacking from the right side, found open space and fired a shot from just outside the penalty area that cleanly beat the Cheney keeper to make it 1-0.

Paeton Ferguson subbed in for Nagata midway through the half and immediately found an open space on front of the goal and skewered a shot through the Cheney defense to make it 2-0.

Senior Ashley Meyer capped the half with a pair of goals, threading her way around defenders and finding her way into the goal area.

“We’ve got an experienced group,” coach Shelli Totton-Peterson said. “We have one new freshman and one new sophomore. Everyone else is back from last year.

“We’ve been pushing them hard in practice because we have a good idea of just how good this group can be.”

The Eagles’ seven seniors flexed their leadership muscles against Cheney – especially Sullens, who did a masterful job of controlling traffic in the offensive end before tweaking her ankle late in the match.

Junior Natalie Blair filled in for Sullens and, minutes later, headed in the fifth goal of the game.

The victory moved West Valley to 4-0 to start the GNL season. The Eagles are 4-2 overall after losing nonleague matches to Mt. Spokane and Gonzaga Prep.

“We played well against Mt. Spokane,” Totton-Peterson said. “We had a good game with Gonzaga Prep, especially after we got used to playing on their (artificial) turf. We missed a shot at an open goal that would have tied the match in the second half, and gave up two goals in the last seven minutes.

“We faded in that game, in part because it was our third match of the week and we’d played a match at Clarkston the day before, and that requires 10 hours on a bus.”

The Eagles have started the league season quickly, sweeping their way through the first round of league play, posting a 4-1 win at Pullman, beating East Valley 3-2 and Clarkston 2-1 before spanking Cheney.

But the tough part of GNL play is the fact that everyone has to play each other three times during the regular season, then face off one more time in the post-season.

“This year we have to go to Pullman and Clarkston twice each,” the coach said. “Those are long bus trips. It was nice last year, when they came here twice and it’s our turn.”

Playing league opponents so often is a challenge. Teams get to know each other almost too well.

A year ago West Valley and East Valley faced off five times – three times during the regular season and once more for seeding into the state tournament.

The fifth time was in the first round of the state tournament, when the Eagles scored late to beat the Knights, 1-0, in a match played in sub-freezing temperatures at Gonzaga Prep.

“It’s a long season and you never know what’s going to happen,” the coach said. “I like to get as many kids into games as I can because you never know when you’re going to need them to step up and fill in for someone who’s injured.

“It helps that so many of our players have been through all of this before. They know what to expect.”