BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's soccer team opens its 14-match Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule with a pair of matches this week.

 

The Vikings (1-1-2) open GNAC play Thursday hosting Simon Fraser University under the lights at Harrington Field (7 pm) and hit the road for match-up with No. 19 nationally-ranked Western Oregon University on Saturday in Monmouth, Oregon.

 

WWU is coming off a 0-1-1 road trip to California facing a pair of ranked teams, dropping a 2-1 contest to No. 20 Sonoma State and tying No. 13 Point Loma 1-1. The Vikings were set to face another nationally-ranked team Sunday, but the game vs. Colorado School of Mines was canceled due to poor air quality caused by wildfires in the region.

 

The Vikings enter conference play aiming for a ninth GNAC regular-season title after finishing 2nd with a 10-3-1 record in 2021. WWU was picked to finish 2nd in the preseason conference coaches poll behind Seattle Pacific University.

 

WWU's conference schedule features seven of the first 10 matches on the road before ending the GNAC slate with four consecutive home games at Harrington Field.

 

Western is not currently ranked in the national top 25 United Soccer Coaches poll, snapping a string of 76 consecutive weeks being ranked nationally dating back to the 2014 season.

 

The complete 2022 schedule can be viewed online via wwuvikings.com/22_WSOC.

 

 

WWU enters its 21st season playing in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, combining for a 182-49-21 (.764) record in GNAC contests. Owns an all-time record of 16-4-0 in the first GNAC game of a season.

 

Here is a look at the series history between the Vikings and upcoming opponents:

 

• Simon Fraser: WWU leads the all-time series vs. SFU 32-17-3 and has had the upper-hand in recent history with 20 consecutive wins and a 24-game unbeaten streak (22-0-2) dating back to 2008…swept the Red Leafs last season with wins of 2-1 on the road and 2-0 at home…allowed only three goals against SFU in the last 23 meetings.
• Western Oregon: Vikings lead the series over WOU 39-6-2 with a current 13-game unbeaten streak (11-0-2) dating back to the 2013 season…WWU is 15-5-2 all-time in road games in Monmouth…Vikings went 1-0-1 vs. the Wolves last season, winning 2-1 at home and drawing 1-1 in double overtime on the road.

 

Here is a look at Western's record breakdown for the 2022 season:

 

 

News and notes on the 2022 WWU Women's Soccer team:

 

• The Record – 1-1-2 overall, 0-0-0 GNAC, 1-0-1 Home, 0-1-1 Away.
• Balanced Scoring – WWU has scored five goals this season – by five different players.
• Diaz Goals – Senior Dayana Diaz is WWU's active career leader with 16 goals scored (in 81 games)…with one more goal will tie for 28th-most in program history.
• Trio of Goalkeepers – WWU has played three goalkeepers in the first four games of the season…juniors Claire Henninger and Abigail Trengove have each made a pair of starts, with sophomore Grace Wales appearing in one game in reserve duty.
• Harrington Success – Owns all-time 71-4-5 all-time playing at the on-campus facility that debuted in 2014 (.919).
• GNAC Champions – Won both the GNAC regular-season and conference tournament titles in 2019, the 8th regular-season title and 5th tournament title in program history…WWU placed 2nd in the 2021 GNAC standings.
• Always Dancing – Advanced to each of the last nine NCAA Division II Championships and played in six consecutive West Regional title matches (8 in last 9 seasons).
• National Champions – 2016 NCAA II National Championship with a 24-0-1 record…also national runner-up finish in 2019 (23-3-0).
• The Gaffer – Travis Connell is in his 20th season leading the WWU Women's program (27th at WWU), and owns an all-time 281-79-35 (.756) as the Western women's head coach…owns 406 career wins including time with WWU men's soccer.
• Roster Breakdown – The 2022 roster features 30 players, with 21 from Washington, five from Oregon, two from California, one from Arizona and one from North Dakota.

 

All WWU home games will stream live online via Vikings TV, with the direct links available 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

 

WWU held the No. 10 national ranking in the NCAA Division II United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll, extending a streak of appearing in the last 76 national polls. Dropped out of the rankings after going 1-1-1 to open the season, snapping a string of appearing in 101 consecutive polls (including receiving votes) dating back to the sixth week of the 2012 season. WWU has advanced to play in the NCAA postseason in each of the last nine seasons (since 2012). WWU is coming off a 15-5-3 campaign in 2021, finishing second in the GNAC with a 10-3-1 record, and played in its sixth consecutive West Regional title game.

 

Since Harrington Field debuted on the south edge of the WWU campus in 2014, the Vikings are 71-4-5 (.919) playing in front of the home crowd. WWU had a 32-game unbeaten streak (29-0-3) at Harrington Field snapped vs. Seattle Pacific early in the 2021 season (previous home loss - Oct. 28, 2017 vs. Concordia). The Vikings are 10-2-0 at Harrington Field in postseason play, hosting NCAA games in 2014 (0-1-0), 2015 (3-0-0), 2016 (1-0-0), 2017 (1-0-0), 2019 (2-0-0) and 2021 (1-0-0), and GNAC Championships games in 2016 (1-0-0) and 2021 (1-1-0).

 

Here is a look at the updated records of the eight GNAC programs heading into the first week of conference play:

 

 

There are likely to be a lot of tie games this season with new NCAA soccer rules for 2022 which eliminates overtime during the regular season. Any match that is tied at the 90-minute mark will now end that way, which means no overtime or golden goal scenarios. In the postseason, there will be overtime but no more golden goal; teams will play two full 10-minute extra periods regardless of any goals and if it is still tied, the advancing team will be decided on penalty kicks. Just for kicks, the WWU single-season record for ties is five set in 1981, and most recently four in 2009, 2010 and 2014.

 

The Vikings have made nine consecutive trips to the NCAA Division II Championships and 11 overall appearances in the NCAA postseason in program history. WWU played for the national title in 2019, are 4-0 all-time in national quarterfinal games and 2-2 in national semifinal contests. The program owns an all-time 23-9-1 record in NCAA Championships play (5-1 in 2019, 1-1 in 2021), winning at least one game in nine of 11 trips to the NCAA postseason. WWU was crowned national champion in 2016 with a 24-0-1 record, capped by a 3-2 victory over Grand Valley State in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

Here is a look at the complete Great Northwest Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll for the 2022 season:

 

 

 

 

WWU has won 103 of its last 128 games dating back to the start of the 2016 national championship season, going 103-15-10 (.844) during this stretch. The program has won seven of the last nine GNAC regular-season titles (last in 2019), four of the last six GNAC Tournaments (last in 2019) and advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the last nine seasons. During the nine-year stretch of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, WWU has reached the West Regional Championship match eight times and advanced to the NCAA II national semifinals four times (2013, 2015, 2016, 2019). Western has a current streak of 18 consecutive winning seasons for one of the top-10 longest active streaks in NCAA II.

 

Travis Connell is in his 20th season leading the women's program as head coach and 27th overall as a coach at WWU. Owns a 281-79-35 (.756) record leading the women's program to rank as the 8th-winningest active coach amongst NCAA Division II head coaches. Overall he is 11th 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 125 wins as the head coach of the men's soccer program at WWU, Connell has amassed 406 career NCAA head coaching victories. He is assisted by former Viking standouts Claire Morgan and Jamie Arthurs.

 

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 nine consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships. WWU has advanced to the NCAA II Final Four in four of the last eight seasons and played for the West Region championship in eight of the last nine seasons (six consecutive). 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 nine Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season titles and won four of the last five GNAC Tournament titles (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019). Head coach Travis Connell is in his 20th season leading the program in 2022 (27th overall at WWU), and has led the Vikings to 11 trips to the NCAA Championships (9 straight) and 28 consecutive winning seasons. He picked up his 400th career victory October 16, 2021 vs. Simon Fraser. 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. Over the last eight seasons (since 2015), the Vikings have combined for a 124-17-11 (.852) record. WWU's 179 wins during the 2010s decade were the 6^th-most out of 1,043 NCAA women's soccer programs.