Oct. 20, 2009
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Continuing a string of eight road games, the Western Washington University men's soccer team is in southern California this week to face defending NCAA Division II national champion Cal State Dominguez Hills on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and nationally No.10-ranked Cal State L.A. on Friday (1 p.m.) in non-conference action.
The Vikings, 5-8-0 overall and 2-3-0 in GNAC counters, then travel to Simon Fraser for another non-league contest Monday, Oct. 26 (7 p.m.) before returning to conference action Thursday, Oct. 29 (7 p.m.) at Seattle Pacific.
Western won 4-3 in overtime last Saturday at GNAC-rival Northwest Nazarene as it completed a season series sweep of the Crusaders. That was the Vikings' first game in 12 days and snapped a two-game losing streak.
Midfielder Tyler Bjork (So., Kirkland/Juanita) scored the game-winning goal in the 107th minute and forward Oscar Jimenez (So., Mount Vernon) had a goal and two assists, one on Bjork's goal, for the Vikings.
Jimenez is second among Western scorers with 14 points on five goals and four assists. Midfielder Kellan Brown (So., Tacoma/Bellarmine) leads the Vikings with 16 points on six goals and four assists.
CSUDH has a 10-5-1 record and is riding a four-game winning streak. The Toros are 6-1-1 at home.
CSULA (Oct. 21 vs. Seattle Pacific) is 13-2-1 overall and has won all nine of its home games. The Golden Eagles got off to an 11-0-0 start and were the top-ranked team in the country at that time.
Simon Fraser, ranked No.5 nationally in the NAIA, is 13-3-0, winning nine of its last 10 games. The Clansmen are 6-1-0 at home.
Travis Connell (11th year, 99-95-11) is one win shy of becoming the first Vikings' coach in program history to reach 100 career victories.
Notes: The Vikings have a 2-6-0 series record against CSUDH, 0-2-1 versus CSULA and 14-27-3 against Simon Fraser ... Western is 0-4-0 this season to nationally Top 25-rated teams ... The Vikings are the defending GNAC champions and were the unanimous choice in the preseason coaches poll to win this year's GNAC title ... Prior to Saturday's win at Northwest Nazarene, Western had dropped seven of nine games following a 3-3-0 start ... The overtime win against the Crusaders was the Vikings' first in four extra period games this fall.
