Tuesday, November 28, 2023
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. –  A trio of Seattle Pacific players led eight total Great Northwest Athletic Conference selections to the 2023 Division II Conference Commissioners Association Women’s Soccer All-West Region Teams as members of the first team.

Reigning GNAC Player of the Year Sophie Beadle heads up the conference’s first-team honorees alongside fellow Falcons Jacqueline Blakeley and Lauren Snedeker.  Along with the Falcons, Western Oregon’s Hannah Rispler and Western Washington’s Morgan Manalili were also named to the first team. Seattle Pacific’s three first-team selections are the most of any team while the GNAC’s five total first-team honorees are tied for the most of any conference in the region.

Beadle, a senior midfielder from Rainier, Wash., led SPU to a GNAC-record 10th regular season title this season and is a key member of the Falcons’ attack. Heading into the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships this Thursday, Beadle has nine points courtesy of one goal and seven assists. She ranks fourth on the team in scoring even through battling an injury which has limited her playing time since mid-October.

Blakeley leads both the Falcons and the GNAC this season with 18 points on eight goals and two assists. The senior forward from Portland, Ore., has started every match of the season for SPU, logging over 1,100 minutes for the offense which leads the conference with an average of 1.86 goals per game.

Snedeker earned first team all-region honors in a season where the junior midfielder from Washougal, Wash., has notched two goals and two assists. Along with Blakeley, Snedeker is one of just three players to start all 21 matches for the Falcons this season and leads the team with 1,840 minutes played heading into Thursday’s match with Point Loma.

Manalili earned her second first team all-region selection in as many years for Western Washington. The sophomore midfielder from Shoreline, Wash., came on strong in the second half of the conference slate to finish second in the GNAC with 15 points on six goals and three assists. Four of those goals stood as game-winners, the most of any player in the conference.

Rispler rounds out the GNAC’s first team all-region honorees and also features on the first team for the second year in a row. A standout defender from Gresham, Ore., Rispler played all but 15 minutes of WOU’s season and started all 18 matches. Along with her defensive work, she also added one assist on the season.

Senior defender Marissa Bankey makes it four total Falcons to earn all-region honors with her selection to the second team. The Spokane, Wash., native has also started every match of the season for SPU, playing over 1,400 minutes and adding value to the offense as well with three goals on the year so far.

Rounding out the conference’s all-region honorees are a pair of Western Washington second-teamers in Asia Hardin and Claire Henninger. Hardin, a sophomore defender from West Linn, Ore., started every match of the season for WWU and played a team-leading 1,875 minutes while anchoring a backline that led the GNAC with a 0.76 goals against average. Henninger also played a critical role in that defensive success as the goalkeeper from Sequim, Wash., capped off her collegiate career with a conference-leading 0.61 goals against average and .839 save percentage.

The D2CCA Women’s Soccer All-West Region Team was nominated by and voted upon by the region’s athletics communications professionals. With their first-team selections, Beadle, Blakeley, Snedeker, Manalili and Rispler all move on to consideration for the D2CCA Women’s Soccer All-America Team, which will be announced on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

Seattle Pacific’s all-region honorees will be aiming to keep the good times rolling as they travel to face No. 1 seed Point Loma in the West Region Final of the NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Championships on Thursday at 1 p.m. (PST) in Grand Junction, Colo.