Wednesday, November 1, 2017
PORTLAND, Ore. – Helping Concordia to its first-ever GNAC regular-season title, Cavaliers’ junior midfielder Gabrielle Ewing was named the GNAC Player of the Year, leading selections to the 2017 GNAC Women’s Soccer All-Conference Team.
Concordia wrapped up the GNAC regular season unbeaten at 11-0-1, outscoring conference opposition 30-2. Two other Cavaliers join Ewing as first-team selections, including Defensive Player of the Year senior Ana Delgadillo.
In her fourth year as Northwest Nazarene’s head coach, Mary Trigg earned the Coach of the Year award after guiding the Nighthawks to its first GNAC Championships appearance in program history. Northwest Nazarene set program records for most overall (11) and conference (eight) wins in a single season.
Second on her team with four goals and three assists, Seattle Pacific forward Sophia Chilczuk took home the Freshman of the Year honor while Western Washington junior forward Karli White was named the Newcomer of the Year after transferring from Division I Seattle. Of the 11 First Team All-GNAC players, seven were unanimous selections.
Earning Second Team All-GNAC accolades last season, Ewing took her game to another level this season as she led Concordia with eight goals and six assists. Ewing is tied for first in the GNAC with five game-winning goals, leading a Concordia team that has not lost a regular-season match since Sept. 8. On the defensive side of the ball, Delgadillo anchored a Cavaliers’ backline that proved hard for opponents to unlock. Playing in over 1,200 minutes this season, Delgadillo has played a key role in Concordia’s 10 shutouts and has added two goals and two assists to reinforce her value.
Sophomore goalkeeper Anna Miller rounds out Concordia’s representatives after a breakout season between the sticks. She ranks first in the GNAC with a .870 save percentage and has allowed just six goals including eight shutouts in 14 appearances. Miller has earned GNAC Defensive Player of the Week twice this season.
In her first year with WWU, White was tied for fifth in the GNAC with eight goals second in the league with eight assists. Joining her are three other Vikings who have found great success as GNAC players. Tied for first in the league with 14 goals, junior forward Gabriela Pelogi earns first-team honors for the second season in a row. Senior defender Sierra Shugarts, the defending Division II Player of the Year, earns her third appearance on the All-GNAC team after leading Western Washington to a league-high 11 shutouts and 0.38 goals against average. Senior midfielder Emily Webster, a four-time all-GNAC selection, rounds out WWU’s first-team selections having played in all 16 contests this season. Along with her goal and four assists, her stability in the midfield aided a high-flying Vikings’ attack that netted a league-high 50 goals.
For the second consecutive year, Simon Fraser forward Emma Pringle lands First Team All-GNAC honors after another impressive goal-scoring campaign. The 2016 Freshman of the Year picked up right where she left off, tying for the league-high of 14 goals. Her four-goal week during late September earned her the United Soccer Coaches Player of the Week honor on Oct. 3. Joining Pringle is Clan junior midfielder Jenna Baxter. In 16 appearances, Baxter recorded 13 assists, which is tied for first in Division II.
Rounding out the first-team selections are Seattle Pacific junior forward Kasey Reeve and Northwest Nazarene senior defender Cassandra Clarke. Reeve has been a reliable figure up top with a team-high 10 goals. Despite the high output, it has been the timeliness of her goals that have helped SPU to its sixth-straight GNAC Championships appearance, as four of her five game-winning tallies have come in one-goal games.
Clarke provided a strong defensive presence to a Nighthawks team that exceeded all expectations this season. Going into 2017, NNU was picked to finish seventh in the GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The senior is second on the team with more than 1,500 minutes played, helping the Nighthawks to three shutouts in their final six games to clinch a berth in the GNAC Championships.
Concordia’s Sydney Van Steenberge and Seattle Pacific’s Kaytlin Willis lead the Second Team All-Conference selections as the two unanimous vote-getters. Van Steenberge, was second on the Cavaliers with 15 points and six goals while Willis led all SPU field players in minutes played. Central Washington senior forward Mackenzie Nolte makes her fourth appearance on the All-GNAC squad while CWU senior midfielder Whitney Lowe is selected to all-conference honors for a third-straight year.
Northwest Nazarene had three players earn second-team honors. Forwards Madi Taylor and Rikki Myers, the Nighthawks’ two leading goal scorers with seven each, appear with sophomore defender Tennyson Young. Seattle Pacific earned a trio of second-team selections in freshman midfielder Claire Neder, who had four assists, Willis and the SPU career leader in saves, senior Molly Stinson.
Starting in all but one match this year, Concordia freshman defender Katie Greene joins Van Steenberge with second-team honors. Western Washington rounds out the GNAC second team with junior defender Taylor Hallquist after earning an honorable mention selection a season ago.
The GNAC Championships will begin this Thursday at 4 p.m. at Concordia’s Tuominen Yard. No. 2 Western Washington will look to jump-start its GNAC and national title defense in the first semifinal against No. 3 Seattle Pacific. The No. 2-seeded Cavaliers feature in the nightcap against tournament newcomers, No. 4 Northwest Nazarene.
GNAC 2017 WOMEN'S SOCCER ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Player of the Year: Gabrielle Ewing, Concordia
Coach of the Year: Mary Trigg, Northwest Nazarene
Defensive Player of the Year: Ana Delgadillo, Concordia
Freshman of the Year: Sophia Chilczuk, Seattle Pacific
Newcomer of the Year: Karli White, Western Washington
| FIRST TEAM | |||||
| Name | School | Pos. | Ht. | Yr. | Hometown (Previous School) |
| *+$ Gabriela Pelogi | Western Washington | F | 5-4 | Jr. | Federal Way, Wash. (Federal Way) |
| *+ Emma Pringle | Simon Fraser | F | 5-8 | So. | North Vancouver, B.C. (Windsor) |
| * Karli White | Western Washington | F | 5-5 | Jr. | North Bend, Wash. (Seattle Univ.) |
| Kasey Reeve | Seattle Pacific | F | 5-10 | Jr. | Fountain Valley, Calif. (Fountain Valley) |
| *# Gabrielle Ewing | Concordia | M | 5-7 | Jr. | Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (Hawaii Prep) |
| *+!% Emily Webster | Western Washington | M | 5-6 | Sr. | Bellingham, Wash. (Sehome) |
| Jenna Baxter | Simon Fraser | M | 5-3 | Jr. | Surrey, B.C. (Oregon State Univ.) |
| *+& Sierra Shugarts | Western Washington | D | 5-9 | Sr. | Federal Way, Wash. (Decatur) |
| *+ Ana Delgadillo | Concordia | D | 5-6 | Sr. | Vancouver, Wash. (Columbia River) |
| Cassandra Clarke | Northwest Nazarene | D | 5-7 | Sr. | Blackfoot, Idaho (Treasure Valley CC) |
| Anna Miller | Concordia | GK | 5-6 | So. | Issaquah, Wash. (Issaquah) |
| SECOND TEAM | |||||
| Name | School | Pos. | Ht. | Yr. | Hometown (Previous School) |
| +&% Mackenzie Nolte | Central Washington | F | 5-9 | Sr. | Marysville, Wash. (Marysville-Pilchuck) |
| * Sydney Van Steenberge | Concordia | F | 5-4 | Jr. | McMinnville, Ore. (Perrydale) |
| @ Madi Taylor | Northwest Nazarene | F | 5-4 | Jr. | Lewiston, Idaho (Treasure Valley CC) |
| Rikki Myers | Northwest Nazarene | F | 5-7 | Fr. | Mill Creek, Wash. (Henry M. Jackson) |
| Tennyson Young | Northwest Nazarene | M | 5-4 | So. | Meridian, Idaho (Mountain View) |
| Claire Neder | Seattle Pacific | M | 5-7 | Fr. | Spokane, Wash. (Mead) |
| @& Whitney Lowe | Central Washington | M | 5-4 | Sr. | Olympia, Wash. (Black Hills) |
| *@ Kaytlin Willis | Seattle Pacific | D | 5-6 | Jr. | Snohomish, Wash. (Snohomish) |
| @ Taylor Hallquist | Western Washington | D | 5-5 | Jr. | Vancover, Wash. (Columbia River) |
| Katie Greene | Concordia | D | 5-9 | Fr. | Spokane, Wash. (Mead) |
| Molly Stinson | Seattle Pacific | GK | 6-0 | Sr. | Woodinville, Wash. (Woodinville) |
| HONORABLE MENTION | |||||
| Name | School | Pos. | Ht. | Yr. | Hometown (Previous School) |
| @$^ Abbie Litka | Central Washington | D | 5-11 | Sr. | Issaquah, Wash. (Skyline) |
| Kasey Ames | Concordia | M | 5-9 | Jr. | Liberty Lake, Wash. (Central Valley) |
| McKenna Stocker | Concordia | D | 5-6 | Jr. | Liberty Lake, Wash. (Central Valley) |
| Alexa Iacolucci | Montana State Billings | M | 5-7 | So. | Lake Forest Park, Wash. (Shorecrest) |
| Olivia Carter | Northwest Nazarene | D | 5-4 | Jr. | Mill Creek, Wash. (Henry M. Jackson) |
| Hannah Holm | Northwest Nazarene | M | 5-4 | Sr. | Spokane Valley, Wash. (Univ. of Minnesota) |
| Daniele Ortiz | Northwest Nazarene | GK | 5-7 | Sr. | Sunnyvale, Calif. (Homestead) |
| Rose Robbins | Saint Martin’s | D | 5-6 | So. | Centralia, Wash. (Centralia) |
| Sophia Chilczuk | Seattle Pacific | F | 5-11 | Fr. | Kent, Wash. (Kentridge) |
| Julia DeVere | Seattle Pacific | M | 5-3 | Jr. | Bellingham, Wash. (Squalicum) |
| Allyson Dickson | Simon Fraser | D | 5-3 | Jr. | Burnaby, B.C. (Burnaby North) |
| @ Katelyn Erhardsen | Simon Fraser | M | 5-4 | Jr. | Maple Ridge, B.C. (Samuel Robertson Technical) |
| Kalli Brundage | Western Oregon | M | 5-0 | So. | Battle Ground, Wash. (Prairie) |
| Kai Mahuka | Western Oregon | D | 5-6 | Sr. | Waianawe, Hawaii (Peninsula CC) |
| Grace Eversaul | Western Washington | M | 5-7 | Fr. | Vancouver, Wash. (Skyview) |
| # Ashley Homer | Western Washington | GK | 5-9 | Sr. | Puyallup, Wash. (Coll. of Saint Rose) |
| @ Liv Larson | Western Washington | F | 5-5 | So. | Arlington, Wash. (Arlington) |
| Emily Nelson | Western Washington | D | 6-0 | So. | Puyallup, Wash. (Bellarmine Prep) |
* - Unanimous Selection
+ - First Team Selection In 2016
# - Second Team Selection In 2016
@ - Honorable Mention Selection In 2016
! - First Team Selection In 2015
& - Second Team Selection In 2015
$ - Honorable Mention Selection In 2015
% - Second Team Selection In 2014
^ - Honorable Mention Selection In 2014