Men's Soccer | 10/3/2018 6:13:00 PM

ABOUT THE VIKINGS…the WWU men's soccer team (5-4-0, 1-2-0 GNAC) returns to the road with a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference contests…play Montana State Billings on Thursday at 1 pm MT/12 pm PT at Yellowjacket Soccer Field and continue the road trip Saturday against Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho at 4 pm MT/3 pm PT.
 
LAST TIME OUT…the Vikings snapped a two-game losing streak with a 2-0 blanking of Concordia last Saturday at Harrington Field in GNAC action…senior Drew Barker scored in the 17^th minute for the eventual game-winning goal and freshman Teagan Eldridge scored his first collegiate goal in the 52^nd minute to clinch the victory…redshirt freshman goalkeeper Brandon Wolter made a pair of saves while recording his third clean sheet of the season.
 

2018 Record Breakdown
Overall Record	5-4-0
Home	2-2-0
Away	3-2-0
Neutral	0-0-0
GNAC Record	1-2-0
Ranked Opponents	0-0-0
By Kit
White	3-0-0
Navy	2-2-0
Light Blue	0-0-0
Black	0-2-0

HOW TO FOLLOW…all GNAC matches will stream live and feature live stats at GNAC.tv, with home games also streamed live on YouTube…in addition to being available online, all conference matches are available via the GNAC channel on Roku, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV…live links can be accessed through WWUVikings.com/Live.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN…WWU begins a stretch of four consecutive road games this week…after the trip to Montana and Idaho, the Vikings will then have tough road tests at Seattle Pacific (10/11) and current No. 1-ranked Simon Fraser (10/14)…WWU is 6-4-3 on the road since the start of last season.
 

THIS WEEK IN WWU MEN'S SOCCER
Thursday, October 4	Live Coverage
WWU (5-4-0, 1-2-0 GNAC) at Montana State Billings (4-6-1, 1-3-0)  ●  1 pm MT/12 pm PT	📊 LiveStats | 🎥 Webcast
Saturday, October 6	Live Coverage
WWU (5-4-0, 1-2-0 GNAC) at Northwest Nazarene (3-5-1, 3-0-0)  ●  4 pm MT/3 pm PT	📊 LiveStats | 🎥 Webcast
Media Coverage at WWUVikings.com/Live or GNAC.tv

HOME STRETCH…after this current four-game road trip, WWU will play four of its final five matches of the 2018 regular season at Harrington Field…hosts Saint Martin's (10/18), Northwest Nazarene (10/25), Seattle Pacific (10/27) and Simon Fraser (11/1) during the four-game homestand…Vikings have a .500 or better record at home during five of the last six seasons (since 2012), combining to go 30-18-9 at home over that span.
 
AMONG THE LEADERS...Georg Cholewa has 11 points (4 goals, 3 assists) to rank tied for 7^th in the GNAC in points (T6th in goals and assists)…recorded at least a goal or assist in 5 of 9 games.
 
CORNER KICK CHANCES...WWU is tied for 2^nd in the GNAC with 5.44 corner kicks per game (49 total)…season-high 11 corner kicks vs. Hawai'i Hilo on Sept. 11…Vikings have ranked in the top two in the GNAC in corners per game during each of the past two years since start of the 2016 season.
 
DISTRIBUTION…7 players have accounted for WWU's 12 goals for the season with 5 players also accounting for the team's 9 assists…three players have scored multiple goals…Georg Cholewa has 4 goals, while Drew Farnsworth and Stephen Jinneman have 2 apiece…Cholewa leads WWU with 3 assists and Drew Schaefer has 2 assists.
 
GNAC HONORS...WWU men's soccer has had a conference weekly honor in two of last five weeks…Jeremiah Lee was named GNAC Defensive Player of the Week for Sept. 10-16 after playing all 180 minutes and scoring the game-winning goal vs. Hawai'i Pacific…Georg Cholewa was named the GNAC Offensive Player of the Week for Sept. 3-9 after recording a brace in a win at Point Loma.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW…

• Balanced Attack – 7 players have scored for WWU and 8 have recorded a point through this season.
• Second Half Vikings – WWU has scored 8 of its 12 goals in the second half or overtime.
• Not in the Net – WWU has 3 shutouts to rank 2^nd in the GNAC.
• Iron Man – Junior Jeremiah Lee leads the team playing in 797 minutes (out of 824 possible minutes).
• Goals Against Average – Vikings are 2^nd in the GNAC with a 1.33 goals against average.
• Captains – Stephen Jinneman, Garrett Strawn and Jeremiah Lee are team co-captains for 2018.
• Road Wins – Vikings are 3-2-0 on the road and have already equaled their road wins total from 2017.
• Young Viks – 7 of WWU's 17 players to see action this season are in the first or second year in the program.
• Coach Brisbon – WWU head coach Greg Brisbon is in his sixth season leading the program (18th overall with WWU soccer)…directed Vikings to 46-37-16 record as head coach (.545) and first NCAA II tournament appearance in 2016…2016 GNAC co-Coach of the Year.

SERIES HISTORY…here is a look at the all-time series history vs. this week's opponents:

• Montana State Billings: Second meeting this season, with MSUB winning 2-1 in Bellingham on 9/22…WWU leads the all-time series 18-11-1…MSUB has won 5 of last 7 matches…series is pretty tight in matches played in Billings at 5-5-1.
• Northwest Nazarene: First meeting between WWU and NNU this season…Nighthawks visit Bellingham on Oct. 25…WWU leads the all-time series 15-6-3 dating back to first meeting in 1996…series is tied 2-2-2 over the last 6 games dating back to the 2015 season…Vikings are 8-4-1 all-time in Nampa (7-2-2 at home).

SOLID START...WWU opened the season 3-0-0 and went 4-2-0 through the non-conference schedule (most regular season non-conference wins since five victories in 2010)…tied for best winning streak start to a season since Vikings were 3-0-0 to start 2000 season.
 
CLOSE CONTESTS...WWU has lost by a deficit of greater than one goal just five times since the beginning of the 2016 season and three times since the beginning of the 2017 season…6 of 9 games during 2018 have been decided by a difference of one goal.
 
THE RANKINGS...WWU is not ranked nationally or regionally in the most recent United Soccer Coaches Polls but had debuted in the national rankings at No. 13 in the first regular season poll and was ranked No. 24 nationally the following week…highest regional ranking during season was No. 2 after first week of regular season…the No. 13 national ranking was the first NCAA Division II national ranking for WWU in program history.
 
DOWN BUT NOT OUT...Vikings won 4-3 in overtime at Sonoma State in the season opener after trailing 3-1 when Seawolves scored a goal to take a 3-1 lead in the 51st minute…marked the third time since start of 2017 WWU has overcome a two-goal deficit to tie and second time to win…came from down 2-0 to defeat Seattle Pacific 3-2 in overtime on Sept. 23, 2017 and was also down a pair of goals before tying Colorado Christian 2-2 after two overtimes on Sept. 7, 2017.
 
IN THE CLUTCH…Stephen Jinneman has one game-tying and one game-winning goal in 2018…has 6 career goals from his defensive position with 4 of those goals either game-winning or game-tying…first career goal was a golden goal header in the 98th minute against Dixie State in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Division II Tournament to give WWU its first-ever tournament win, 3-2.
 
WHAT RETURNS...the Vikings return five players who made at least 10 or more starts last season as well as a 2017 redshirt who made 14 starts in 2016…Georg Cholewa and Stephen Jinneman were both Honorable Mention All-GNAC selections last year.
 
QUICK FACTS…WWU went 6-6-5 overall and tied for 3rd in the GNAC with a 5-4-3 record last year…15 letterwinners return overall…replacing 5 starters from last season…2018 team features six seniors, eight juniors, four sophomores and 11 freshmen.
 
PRESEASON COACHES POLL…the Vikings were picked to place 4th in the conference by the annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Coaches Poll…two-time defending champion Simon Fraser (49 points) received all seven 1st-place votes while SPU (35 points), MSU Billings (32 points) and WWU (30 points) complete the top four teams in the poll…Vikings placed in a tie for 3rd in the GNAC last year after tying for 2nd in the conference during the 2016 season.
 
TALENTED TRANSFERS…in addition to an incoming class of prep standouts, the Vikings welcome three transfers for 2018…junior Ryan Schaefer joined WWU after transferring from the University of Denver where he appeared in 29 games over two years after redshirting his first season…senior Louis Genty transferred to WWU from INP-ENSIACET in France where he started 25 of 26 games over three seasons…junior Blake McMillian joined WWU from Tacoma CC where he a was an NWAC All-Region honoree.
 
TO THE TOURNAMENT…WWU is a year removed from advancing to the first NCAA II Tournament appearance in program history…Vikings reached the NCAA II Tournament in 2016 and advanced to the second round of the tournament…defeated Dixie State 3-2 in overtime before falling 2-0 to UC San Diego in the second round.
 
COACH BRISBON…Greg Brisbon is in his sixth season as head coach of the WWU men's soccer program and 18th overall associated with WWU soccer…directed Vikings to 46-37-16 record as head coach (.545)…spent previous 12 years as Vikings assistant coach, eight as the associate head coach…coached Vikings to their first NCAA II Tournament appearance and first postseason victory in 2016 with a 10-5-4 record…named GNAC co-Coach of the Year in 2016…WWU finished the season 5-0-1 over the final 6 games, with a win and tie vs. No. 3 Simon Fraser, to secure the bid to the NCAA II Tournament…season record tied for 10th-most wins in program history.
 
2017 SEASON IN REVIEW…finished tied for 3rd in the GNAC with a 6-6-5 overall record and 5-4-3 mark in conference play…began conference schedule 5-0-1, including a four-game win streak to begin GNAC play…best winning streak start to GNAC play since 2002 and six-game unbeaten start to conference schedule…5-0-1 start was part of a larger 9-game unbeaten streak…went to overtime in 9 of 17 games, with 7 reaching double overtime (1-3-5 overtime record)…set program record with 5 ties…named the…WWU was named the GNAC/Red Lion Team of the Week following the opening week of conference play on Sept. 25.

CURRENT GNAC STANDINGS…here is a look at the GNAC standings heading into this week's action:
  GNAC SCHEDULE…here is a look at the GNAC schedule for this week's action: