Monday, October 30, 2023
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Western Washington women’s soccer team has caught fire at the right time, taking two wins and extending its unbeaten streak to eight matches on its way to being named the GNAC Team of the Week.

The Vikings were in fine form last week, notching a pair of shutout wins over Western Oregon and Saint Martin’s. They opened their week with a 1-0 victory over the Wolves on Thursday and followed that up with a 2-0 decision on Saturday to lift their conference record to 8-1-3 (10-3-4 overall) . The two wins extended the Vikings’ unbeaten streak, which stretches back to Oct. 5, to eight games and cemented their place as a top-two seed in the upcoming GNAC Women’s Soccer Championships.

After an up-and-down start to the season, Western Washington head coach Travis Connell has been impressed with his team’s ability to continue growing and find its form through the conference slate.

“I am proud of the way this team has responded to numerous challenges throughout the season and grown throughout the rigors of a tough schedule,” Connell said. “We are finding out more about ourselves with each time we take the field and getting contributions from up and down the roster with each competition. We are looking forward to a strong finish to the season with two big games at home this week at Harrington Field.”

Facing a Western Oregon side that has postseason aspirations of its own, Western Washington showed no signs of slowing down. The Vikings outshot the Wolves 7-4 in the first half with the game-winning goal coming in the 28th minute. Sophomore forward Morgan Manalili intercepted an errant pass by the WOU midfield and punched it ahead to junior forward Sophie Bearden Croft who returned the favor for Manalili to fire a right-footed shot past the goalkeeper on her short side.

That goal proved to be enough for Western Washington as the defense locked down the opposition for the rest of the match to record WWU’s ninth clean sheet of the season. Senior goalkeeper Claire Henninger played big in net for the Vikings, coming up with five saves in the shutout effort.

On Saturday, it was Manalili who struck first once again, netting her sixth goal of the season on a left-footed shot after a nice passing sequence from junior midfielder Gracen Crosby and sophomore forward Minji Rauch. The Vikings weren’t finished scoring though, with junior forward Myka Carr scoring her first goal of the season in the final minute of the first half on yet another assist by Crosby. The Vikings dominated the run of play throughout the match, outshooting the Saints 22-13 with eight shots on goal compared to SMU’s one.

Henninger recorded her conference-leading eighth clean sheet of the season in Saturday’s win while Crosby was also named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Week for her efforts in the midfield through the two shutout victories. Across the weekend, Crosby all but 12 minutes for the Vikings.

With a GNAC Championships berth secured, Western Washington turns its attention to possibly its biggest match of the season thus far as it takes on first-place Seattle Pacific on Thursday in Bellingham. The Vikings will remain home to close out their regular season schedule on Saturday against Montana State Billings.