<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

College notebook: Western Washington, Seattle Pacific set to renew soccer rivalry

Hockinson's Haden one of WWU's six players from county

The Columbian
Published: October 21, 2010, 12:00am
2 Photos
Western Washington outside defender Keller Haden (24).
Western Washington outside defender Keller Haden (24). Photo Gallery

Putting a disheartening loss in the past, the Western Washington women’s soccer team is looking ahead to the conference title race and a return to the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Hockinson High School graduate Keller Haden, primarily the left outside defender in WWU’s 4-4-2 alignment, is one of six Clark County products on the Vikings’ roster.

Among Haden’s teammates is her sister Ashley, a freshman goalkeeper. Three others from Clark County are part of the program’s freshman class: midfielder Brina Sych, a Union High School graduate, and two defenders who were also Columbia River High School teammates in Kiva Stevens and Melinda Hunsaker. Sophomore goalkeeper Alyssa Beauchamp is a graduate of Mountain View High School.

That makes fully one-fourth of the 24-player WWU roster from Clark County. Being a few years older than the rest, however, Keller Haden has only a little experience playing with or against any of the others who are not family.

“I played one tournament with Alyssa Beauchamp, but other than that, I haven’t played with any of those girls because they’re younger than I am,” Haden said. “I’ve seen them play, and they’re all great additions to the team this year.”

Being her sister’s teammate again after three years is a plus for Haden.

“It’s great to be able to play with my sister again,” she said. “We got to my senior year of high school, and now we get to my senior year of college. It’s a lot of fun.”

Western Washington (9-2-2, 6-2-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) plays four of its remaining five regular season games at home.

While their next game is Friday against Central Washington, the big one is Saturday against GNAC rival Seattle Pacific at Orca Field in Bellingham.

The Vikings and Falcons have long been the top two conference teams. That and the relatively little distance between the schools — less than 90 miles on Interstate 5 — has fostered quite the rivalry between them.

Seattle Pacific has won six of nine GNAC titles since the conference began women’s soccer play in 2001, and is defending champion.

The top seed in the West Region playoffs gets the advantage of hosting the first two rounds of the playoffs.

With Skyview High School graduate Maddie Dickinson in goal, Seattle Pacific (10-1-2, 7-1-1) tops the GNAC standings — but the Falcons’ only loss was to WWU, a 1-0 final on Sept. 30 in Seattle.

The Falcons’ last two trips to Bellingham have resulted in 1-0 losses.

Haden, a two-year starter on Western’s back line after four game appearances in her first two seasons, said she is “absolutely” looking forward to another meeting with the Falcons.

“We always have a good game when we play them,” Haden said. “They play a very technical game, which is what we like to do. We have a long-standing rivalry against Seattle Pacific, so whenever we come out to play them, they’re always at their best and we’re always at our best. It’s always a really good game. It’s fun to play, and you never know how it’s going to come out.”

In recent times, the results have typically come out in Western’s favor. SPU leads the all-time series 13-4-3 despite Western’s 3-1-2 advantage in the last six meetings.

The Falcons’ lone win in the last three seasons was a big one — a 1-0 double-overtime decision in the 2008 NCAA Division II playoffs on the way to a national championship.

Western Washington has allowed a total of five goals in 13 games, with nine shutouts.

“We’re very proud of our defense,” Haden said. “We’re mentally tough and strong, and we try to be disciplined. We like to have fun, too.”

Haden, who plays sometimes on the right side of WWU’s back line but usually the left, said the Vikings’ defensive philosophy can change, based on their opponent and the flow of a given game.

“It depends on the game,” she said. “Sometimes I have more opportunities to push up, and sometimes I need to pack in and be more defensive-minded.”

The Vikings, who were listed in the national rankings during September before dropping out after their 14-game unbeaten streak was snapped Sept. 25 with a 1-0 home loss to Montana State-Billings, suffered a second GNAC loss last Thursday at Saint Martin’s in Lacey. WWU bounced back two days later for a 1-0 road win over Western Oregon in Monmouth, Ore.

“It was a tough loss because we were playing hard, then with 30 seconds left they got their unfortunate goal,” Haden said. “It was tough, but we came out hard and got the win on Saturday.”

With the Vikings hopefully back on track after that setback in Lacey, Haden said she is enjoying her final season of collegiate soccer.

“I feel really good,” she said. “We have a great team this year, and we have great chemistry out on the field. We have fun playing our sport,” she said. As for the playoffs, “It’s a very big goal for us every year. This year, with our success, we just want to keep going as far as we can and make it all the way to the top.”

CCC honors Brace

Concordia University sophomore forward Jared Brace shared Cascade Collegiate Conference men’s soccer Player of the Week honors.

The Columbia River High School graduate scored three goals on six shots in two shutout wins for the Cavaliers (11-2, 8-1 CCC).

GFU women No. 10

George Fox University is rated No. 10 in th NCAA Division III preseason women’s basketball rankings by D3hoops.com. The Bruins, led by Heritage High School graduate Keisha Gordon, finished 28-3 last season after a 32-0 national championship season in 2008-09.

Gordon, a 5-foot-10 junior wing, was named First Team All-CCC and Second Team All-West Region last season. She led the Bruins in scoring (13.9 points), steals (2.45 a game) and 3-pointers (61 in 31 games).

Suggestions for College Notebook? Contact Kurt Zimmer at 360-735-4563 or by e-mail at kurt.zimmer@columbian.com

Loading...