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Marissa Lordahl

Sophie Beadle, GNAC women's soccer player of the week, scored two goals during the game on Saturday against Central Washington University.

Women’s Soccer:

Seattle Pacific University’s women’s soccer team bounced back this weekend after their five game shutout streak ended on April 24, with a tied score of 4-4 against the Western Washington Vikings. On Thursday, they were able to rebound by shutting out the Saint Martin’s Saints with a 4-0 win.

The Falcons came out hot at the beginning of the game, with all four of their goals scored in the first half. The game began with senior midfielder Claire Neder scoring on an assist from senior forward Sophia Chilczuk only five minutes into the first half.

Neder scored yet another goal with help from Chilczuk and sophomore midfielder Chloe Gellhaus. This is Neder’s third game of the season where she has scored multiple goals.

“Claire has done a great job this season of both finishing, and creating, goal scoring chances for herself and her teammates! She is very creative as an attacking player, and has been able to use her abilities to help us score a lot of goals.” said SPU women’s soccer coach Arby Busey.

A goal from Chilczuk and an own goal from the Saints pushed the Falcons to a 4-0 lead in the first half, and they never looked back, winning by that score.

On Saturday, the Falcons once again secured a victory as they beat the Central Washington Wildcats 5-2. Freshman forward Sophie Beadle dominated, as she had two goals and an assist in the win. Beadle’s efforts earned her GNAC women’s soccer player of the week. Gellhaus also scored two goals and junior defender Mariah Alexander added a goal as well.

“We have been successful so far by simply showing up and working hard every day. I know that seems overly simple, but that is our secret! We put work in on improving ourselves everyday, and that work has allowed us to have success on the field.” said Busey.

The Falcons remain undefeated with a record of 7-0-1.

Track:

The women’s and men’s track team came to compete this weekend as they attended the BUC scoring invitational at Whitworth University in Spokane on Friday. The team not only won six events and placed within the top four in multiple events, but they set plenty of personal bests.

Senior Grace Bley came out of the meet with two of the six wins, topping the competition in the women’s 100m dash with a time of 12.01 and the women’s 200m dash with a time of 24.53 which was a Boppell Stadium record, where the competition was held.

In the women’s pole vault, senior Scout Cai broke a GNAC record when she won with a height of 13’3”. She not only beat the record once when she surpassed the height of 13’1” ¾, but again when they moved the pole up higher and she hit her new record of 13’3”, earning her GNAC women’s field athlete of the week.

“I was surprised to jump over 13 feet twice because I have attempted that height in past meets and struggled to get over. Pole vaulting takes a lot of focus because it’s such a technical event. I just trust and listen to my coaches because they know what I need to do to clear higher heights.” said Cai about her record breaking win.

In the women’s 800 dash, freshman Ellie Rising won with a time of 2:12.80, beating her personal best. In the 1500 run, senior Dania Holmberg won with a time of 4:29.73. This time beat her season best by seven seconds and her all-time personal best that was set in 2019 by two seconds. Like Cai, Holmberg won GNAC women’s field athlete of the week.

The women were highly successful this weekend as they accounted for five of the six wins that the Falcon’s took home.

On the men’s side, sophomore Jared Putney took home the only win for the men in the 3000 Steeplechase with 9:23.92, setting his own personal best. No other male track athlete came out with a win, but sophomore David Njeri came close as he secured second place in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 14.64 m. Although he did not win this event, he too beat his personal best.

The SPU women took second place in the women’s meet with 33 points, and the men placed seventh among the nine teams, earning nine total points.