BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's soccer team celebrated Senior Day with a 4-0 home victory over Central Washington University on Saturday at Harrington Field.

 

The Vikings scored a pair of goals in each half to secure the season sweep over CWU and move seven points ahead in the GNAC standings. The first-place Vikings are undefeated in conference play with an 8-0-2 mark in league play and have won their last six games to improve to 9-2-4 overall.

 

Western went up 1-0 in the 16th minute on a goal by senior Kyrsten McGuffey after a pass from senior Halle Noel set up the scoring sequence with a pass. Just over six minutes later the Vikings extended the lead to 2-0 when junior midfielder Claire Potter found the back of the net with a shot into the upper right corner.

 

WWU added two more second-half goals to bring the game to the final score of 4-0. Senior Ashley Nguyen cleaned up a saved shot from Emily Holdridge for her third goal of the season and sophomore Olivia Connell headed home the final goal off a corner by junior Emily Rice.

 

Seniors Abigail Trengove (69 minutes, 2 saves) and Grace Wales (21 minutes, 1 save) combined to record the Vikings eighth shutout of the season. 

 

"We played well today. Everyone was motivated to get a good result for the seniors who mean so much to us," said WWU head coach Travis Connell. 

 

The Vikings (9-2-4, 8-0-2 GNAC) is back on the road next week traveling to play at Western Oregon on Thursday (2:30 pm) in Monmouth and on Saturday at Saint Martin's in Lacey (2 pm). The complete 2024 schedule can be viewed online via wwuvikings.com/24_WSOC.

 

Western Washington 2, Central Washington 1

Date: October 26, 2024

Field: Harrington Field     Site: Bellingham, WA

Attendance: 338

 

Goals by period                 1  2    Tot

--------------------------------------------

Central Washington............  0  0  -  0

Western Washington............  2  2  -  4

 

SCORING SUMMARY:

1.      15:20      WWU       McGuffey (Noel)

2.      21:23      WWU       Potter (Noel, Hmura)

3.      55:46      WWU       Nguyen (E. Holdridge)

4.      67:12      WWU       Connell (Rice)

 

Shots: WWU 21, CWU 10

Shots on Goal: WWU 6, CWU 4

Saves: WWU 4 (Trengove – 2, Wales – 1, Team - 1), CWU 2 (Galbraith – 1, Menge – 1)

Corners: WWU 9, CWU 2

Fouls: WWU 10, CWU 10

Offsides: WWU 6, CWU 0

Kits: WWU (White), CWU (Crimson)

Updated Records: WWU (9-2-4, 8-0-2 GNAC), CWU (1-8-4, 0-7-3 GNAC)

 

The Vikings celebrated the eight-player senior class prior to Saturday's regular-season home finale with Abigail Trengove, Sophie Bearden Croft, Halle Noel, Ashley Nguyen, Grace Wales, Myka Carr, Kyrsten McGuffey and Lydia Myers recognized during a pregame ceremony.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Here is a look at Western's record breakdown for the 2024 season:

 

 

Here is an updated look at the GNAC standings and weekly schedule following Saturday's games to wrap up the fifth week of conference play. WWU is in first place with 26 points, seven in front of second-place Seattle Pacific. Updated conference standings, schedules, results and statistics can be found online at GNACsports.com.

 

 

WWU swept the season series vs. Central Washington, winning 7-1 in Ellensburg on October 10, outscoring the Wildcats 11-1 in the two games. The Vikings lead the all-time series 52-10-9 with a current 27-game unbeaten streak (24-0-3). Western leads the series 24-5-4 in home games with a current 9-game winning streak.

 

Here is a look at the Vikings 2024 regular-season schedule. The GNAC Championships will be held November 14-16 at Interbay Stadium in Seattle, and the NCAA Division II Championships open with the first and second rounds November 21-24:

 

 

Since Harrington Field debuted on the south edge of the WWU campus in 2014, the Vikings are 92-7-9 (.894) playing in front of the home crowd (6-1-3 in 2024, 7-1-1 in 2023, 9-1-1 in 2022). The Vikings are 13-2-0 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), 2021 (1-0-0) and 2022 (3-0-0), and GNAC Championships games in 2016 (1-0-0) and 2021 (1-1-0). Including the men's program, WWU Soccer has a combined record of 142-32-24 (.778) at Harrington Field.

 

Fans can follow WWU women's soccer online at WWUVikings.com/WSOC, and via social media on Twitter/X (@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, appearing in the NCAA Championships in 10 of the last 11 seasons and winning a pair of national championships in 2016 and 2022. WWU has advanced to the NCAA II Final Four in five of the last 10 seasons and played for the West Region championship in nine of the last 11 seasons (seven consecutive from 2015-22). The Vikings won the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championship with a 2-1 win over No. 1 nationally-ranked West Chester, 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. The program has claimed eight of the last 12 Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season titles (2022 Champions) and won five of the last eight GNAC Tournament titles (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022). Head coach Travis Connell is in his 22nd season leading the program in 2024 (29th overall at WWU) and has led the Vikings to 12 trips to the NCAA Championships and 19 consecutive winning seasons.