Area roundup: Cougars rescue draw vs. UW

Senior forward Jocelyn Jeffers wasn’t going to allow her rivals to ruin both an unbeaten streak, and Senior Day.

Jeffers’ penalty-kick goal in the 80th minute knotted the game at 1-1, and the Washington State women’s soccer team held onto the Pac-12 Conference draw against the Washington Huskies in the regular season finale at Pullman.

The draw allowed the Cougars (10-4-4 overall, 5-4-2 in conference) to keep their unbeaten streak versus the Huskies alive. Washington State has not dropped a match to the rival Huskies in 11 seasons, winning seven and drawing four others.

Currently ranked No. 18 in the NCAA Women’s Soccer RPI, the Cougars await Monday’s announcement of the 64-team Division I tournament. A berth would be Washington State’s fourth straight. The Cougars lost to Illinois in a shootout in the first-round in last year’s tournament.

Men’s soccer

Will Kendall and Carlo Eikani each scored goals, and Saint Mary’s defeated Gonzaga 2-0 in a West Coast Conference match in Spokane.

The victory allowed the Gaels (9-5-2, 2-2-0) to push past the Bulldogs (3-12-1, 1-3-1) in the league standings, with two matches remaining.

Gonzaga faces Pacific on Sunday at home.

• Washington lost to Stanford for the first time since 2008, as the Cardinal defeated the Huskies 2-0 at Stanford, California. Behind a goal and an assist from Zach Batteer, and a goal from Jordan Morris (a Sounders FC Academy product), the 10th-ranked Cardinal (11-2-3, 4-1-3) upset the third-ranked Huskies (11-4-1, 4-3-1) and moved past Washington in the Pac-12 standings.

Volleyball

Cassie Strickland (18 digs), Bailey Tanner (22 assists) and Krista Vansant (15 kills) led the undefeated and second-ranked Washington Huskies (24-0, 13-0) to a 25-20, 25-18, 25-20 Pac-12 victory over No. 11 Oregon at Seattle.

• Mallorie Schoesler had 15 digs and Maddye Dinsmore passed out 29 assists to lead Whitworth (20-5, 13-2) to a 25-20, 25-20, 25-14 Northwest Conference victory over George Fox (4-21, 3-12), at Newberg, Oregon.

• Behind 10 kills, and 11 digs from Korrie Stephenson, Community College of Spokane defeated Columbia Basin 25-23, 25-13, 25-20 in a Northwest Athletic Conference match at Pasco.

• In the Region 18 Championships at Twin Falls, Idaho, No. 1-seed Southern Idaho defeated North Idaho 25-13, 25-17, 25-18 in the semifinals.

Led by 54 assists from Maddi Seidl and 18 kills from Brittany Aldridge, No. 4-seeded North Idaho reached the semifinals with a 24-26, 25-19, 25-16, 25-11 victory over No. 5 Eastern Utah. NIC still has hopes of an at-large bid to the national tournament.

Women’s basketball

After a 21-8 record in 2013-14, and a third-place finish in the Northwest Conference, the Whitworth Pirates are picked to finish the 2014-15 season right where they left off – in third place. The Pirates were picked to finish third in the 2014-15 preseason coaches’ poll.

Whitworth received one first place vote in the coaches poll. Whitman College was picked to finish first, a season after going 16-0 in league and 31-2 overall.

Wrestling

Michael Nguyen (125-pounds), Deondre Wilson (133), Tyler McLean (165), Jordan Cooks (174) and Taylor Kornoely (285) all had victories for North Idaho, but it wasn’t enough as the Cardinals dropped a meet to Labette Community College 23-19 in Parson, Kansas.