Tuesday, September 16, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – As the non-conference portion of the season is winding down, GNAC teams are gearing up for conference play.

Six of the eight teams head into GNAC competition with a win under their belt and four teams have at least two wins.

Seattle Pacific and Mary are undefeated while Simon Fraser and Northwest Nazarene have only one loss. Right now, the standings are as close as they could be.

No. 13 Seattle Pacific took over the top spot in the standings after conference power Simon Fraser fell to Azusa Pacific. SPU finished off Notre Dame de Namur 2-0 and edged out CSU East Bay 1-0 to improve to 3-0-1.

The University of Mary only played its second game on Sunday, but is second in the conference in goals.

Northwest Nazarene and Simon Fraser have only one loss after each stumbling in California this week. NNU rebounded by beating Dixie State 3-1 on Tuesday for its third win however.

Western Washington won 1-0 against Notre Dame de Namur on Monday to improve to 2-2

South Dakota Mines has a victory while Montana State Billings has come close to breaking into the win column with two ties.

Saint Martin’s will look to get on the board with conference play starting. 

Conferences matches start up in a few days. On Friday at 7 p.m., the University of Mary will take on the South Dakota Mines in the first conference match of the season.

Saturday, Montana State Billings will face Northwest Nazarene in Nampa at 3 p.m. while Seattle Pacific will travel a few miles south to take on Saint Martin’s at 4 p.m.

The night game features a top ten regional matchup with No. 7 Western Washington hosting No. 1 Simon Fraser at 7 p.m.