BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's soccer team officially opens the 2021 season this week with a pair of matches in Colorado.
 
The No. 25 nationally-ranked Vikings will face Adams State University in the season opener on Thursday (Sept. 2, 11 am MT/10 am PT) and Colorado School of Mines on Saturday (Sept. 4, 7 pm MT/6 pm PT), with both matches played at Stermole Soccer Stadium in Golden, Colorado.
 
Both matches will stream live online via the RMAC Network and feature live statistical updates at wwuvikings.com/WS_Stats.
 
Western opens the season picked to finish 2^nd in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and will be aiming to extend its streak of advancing to each of the last NCAA Division II Championships. WWU won the 2019 GNAC regular season and tournament titles, going 23-3-0 overall with a perfect 12-0-0 conference record. The 2016 national champions advanced all the way to the NCAA II title match, falling 1-0 in double overtime to Grand Valley State.
 
WWU played an abbreviated seven-match schedule during the spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, going 4-1-2 with all four wins coming against conference foes. The Vikings return 28 letterwinners and 10 starters from the roster last spring.
 
The home opener at Harrington Field is scheduled for Sunday, September 12 with the Vikings hosting West Region rival Sonoma State in an 11 am match. The GNAC opener is scheduled for September 23 on the road against Simon Fraser in Burnaby, BC.
 
WWU's 19-match regular-season schedule can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/21_WS.
  Here is a look at the series history against both opponents to open the 2021 season:
 

• Adams State: First meeting against the Grizzlies in program history.
• Colorado School of Mines: WWU is 2-1-0 all-time against the Orediggers, including a 5-1 win in the national quarterfinal in 2016. Mines won the last meetings 2-1 in Golden early in the 2019 season.

  WWU prepped for the 2021 season with three preseason contests, and did not allow a goal over the 270 minutes of action. WWU defeated PLU on the road and played Trinity Western to a 0-0 tie. The Vikings also hosted Peninsula College in a scrimmage at Harrington Field.
  Dating back to the national title match on December 14, 2019 vs. Grand Valley State in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there will be a span of 628 days (20 months, 19 days) between a match during a fall championship season for the Vikings. WWU played a very abbreviated seven-match schedule during the 2021 spring season that counted towards the all-time record, but there was no postseason tournament for the GNAC or NCAA.
  Both non-conference matches in Golden, Colorado will be able to be followed via webcast and live stats produced by Colorado School of Mines. Links to follow those games are best viewed at WWUVikings.com/Live, with any updates published to that website. All WWU home games at Harrington Field will feature an HD webcast on WWU's YouTube channel. For easy access, each WWU Women's Soccer game will feature a URL redirect that will send you right to the current game, so bookmark the following links:
 

• Webcast – wwuvikings.com/WS_Watch
• Live Stats – wwuvikings.com/WS_Stats

  The Vikings are scheduled to play 10 home matches at Harrington Field this season, beginning with a September 12 (Sunday) match vs. Sonoma State (11 am). Since Harrington Field debuted on the south edge of the WWU campus in 2014, the Vikings are 60-2-3 (.946) playing in front of the home crowd. WWU has a current 24-game unbeaten streak (22-0-2) at Harrington Field dating back to the end of the 2017 season (last home loss - Oct. 28, 2017 vs. Concordia). Including the men's program, WWU's soccer teams have a combined record of 90-20-12 at Harrington Field (.787 winning percentage) since the on-campus facility debuted.
  WWU has built a 84-15-8 record away from Bellingham over the last nine seasons (since 2012), which includes a 62-11-5 road record and a 22-4-3 mark in neutral-site games. The Vikings open the season with a pair of road games in Golden, Colorado, and will play nine of 19 games on the road in 2021.
  The 2021 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Championships will be held at Harrington Field in Bellingham, with games played November 11 and 13. The top four teams in the GNAC table at the end of the regular season will qualify for the postseason tournament, with the winner receiving the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. This marks the first time WWU will be officially hosting the three-game tournament in the nine-year history of the championships, but Harrington Field did serve as the site of the championship game in 2016 after the planned title match was fogged out in Burnaby, BC. WWU is the defending GNAC Tournament champions winning the title in 2019, and is 13-1-2 all-time in the conference championship event. The Vikings have won five of the eight tournament titles (2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) and advanced to the tournament final all eight seasons.
 

  The Vikings enter the 2021 season tied for 25^th in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Coaches Poll and picked No. 2 in the GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll. WWU has a string of being ranked in 64 consecutive national polls (does not include spring 2021) dating back to midway through the 2014 season. Here is a look at the GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll:
 

2021 GNAC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Rank	School (1st Place Votes)	2019 Record (Finish)	Points
1.	Seattle Pacific (6)	12-8-0 (9-3-0, 2nd)	62
2.	Western Washington (2)	23-3-0 (12-0-0, 1st)	57
3.	Northwest Nazarene	6-10-2 (3-7-2, 7th)	44
4.	Central Washington	8-9-1 (6-5-1, 4th)	37
5.	Western Oregon	10-6-3 (7-3-2, 3rd)	30
6.	Simon Fraser	2-13-1 (2-10-0, T-8th)	22
	Montana State Billings	6-9-2 (5-7-0, 6th)	22
8.	Saint Martin's	4-13-2 (2-10-0, T-8th)	14
Votes awarded on 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis

The Vikings are the two-time defending GNAC regular-season champions (2018 & 2019) and have raised the conference trophy seven times in the last eight seasons. WWU won five consecutive titles from 2012-16 and again in 2018 to add to the 2008 league championship. The Vikings have also won four of the seven conference tournament titles.
  The Vikings calling card in recent years has been a strong defense. Over the last nine seasons the program has combined for a .453 goals against average, including a NCAA-leading mark of 0.341 in 2019. Over the last nine seasons (since 2012), the Vikings have posted a shutout in 123 of the last 192 games (64.1%) while going 163-18-11 (.878). Senior All-American goalkeeper Natalie Dierickx enters the 2021 season with 21 career shutouts (tied for 4^th in WWU history) and owns an all-time program record of 43 wins in net (43-6-2).
  The Vikings have made eight consecutive trips to the NCAA Division II Championships and 10 overall appearances in the NCAA postseason. WWU played for the national title in 2019 and are 2-2 all-time in national semifinal contests. The program owns an all-time 22-8-1 record in NCAA Championships play (5-1 in 2019), winning at least one game in 8 of the 10 trips to the NCAA postseason. WWU was crowned national champions after in 2016 with a 24-0-1 record, capped by a 3-2 victory over Grand Valley State in Kansas City, Missouri.
 
  WWU has won 87 of its last 101 games dating back to the start of the 2016 national championship season, going 87-9-5 (.886) during this stretch. The program has won seven of the last eight GNAC regular-season titles (including 2019), four of the last five GNAC Tournaments and advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the last eight seasons. During the eight-year stretch of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, WWU has reached the West Regional Championship match seven times and advanced to the NCAA II national semifinals four times (2013, 2015, 2016, 2019). Western has a current streak of 17 consecutive winning seasons the 7th-longest active streak in NCAA II.
  Travis Connell enters his 19th season leading the women's program as head coach and 26th overall as a coach at WWU. Owns a 265-73-30 (.761) record leading the women's program to rank as the 5th-winningest active coach amongst NCAA Division II head coaches. Overall he is 10th among all-time winningest NCAA Division II coaches, with a minimum of 10 years as a head coach at a DII school. Connell recorded his 250^th win leading the women's program on October 24, 2019 vs. Seattle Pacific, and including wins as the head coach of the men's soccer program at WWU, Connell has amassed 390 career NCAA head coaching victories. He is assisted by former Viking standouts Claire Morgan and Jamie Arthurs, and Johann Lahud-Zahner.
  Fans can follow WWU women's soccer online at WWUVikings.com/WSoc, and via social media on Twitter (@WWU_WSoccer), Instagram (@wwu_wsoccer) and Facebook (@WWUsoccerwomens).
  The Western Washington University women's soccer program has risen to the top of the Division II ranks, with a string of eight consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships. WWU has advanced to the NCAA II Final Four in four of the last seven seasons and played for the West Region championship in seven of the last eight seasons. The Vikings played for the 2019 national title and won the NCAA Division II National Championship in 2016 with an undefeated 24-0-1 record, beating three-time defending national champion Grand Valley State 3-2 in the title game in Kansas City, Missouri. Including the national championship run, the Vikings put together a 39-game winning streak (4th-longest in NCAA II history) and a 40-game unbeaten streak. The program has claimed seven of the last eight Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season titles, going 92-5-5  in league play during this stretch (since 2012), and won four of the last five GNAC Tournament titles (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019). Head coach Travis Connell finished his 17^th season leading the program in 2019, and has led the Vikings to 10 trips to the NCAA Championships (8 straight) and 16 consecutive winning seasons. WWU finished the 2019 season with a 23-3-0 record, winning the West Regional title and played in the national championship game falling 1-0 to Grand Valley State. WWU's 179 wins during the 2010s decade were the 6^th-most out of 1,043 NCAA women's soccer programs.