MEN’S SOCCER: 

After countless weeks of training during the off-season, the SPU men’s soccer team kicked off the 2021-2022 sports season with an explosive win. The Falcons made the long journey to California to beat the Sonoma State Seawolves, 2-1. 

In the first half of the game, The Falcons wasted no time as senior forward Alex Mejia scored his first goal of the night within two minutes of kickoff. Junior midfielder Tyler Speer provided the assist to Mejia by setting up the shot for him. 

The Falcons’ defense was impressively strong as they prevented the Seawolves from scoring throughout the entire first half of the game. No other goals were scored by either team until the second half. 

As soon as the second half of the game started, Mejia was off to the races again, as he scored his second goal within five minutes of the start of the second half with an assist from senior defender Nik Reierson. 

This dominant performance is an attitude Mejia wants to continue to show during the season. He has big goals for his senior year and intends to make the most of them before he graduates. 

“As a team, I think we have everything necessary to be league champs and compete for a national title. Personally, I want to score 25 goals this season, which is a lot considering we only have 17 regular-season games, but anything is possible,” said Mejia. “ This is my last season so I have to give everything I have during our games because I don’t have more years.”

The Falcons did their best to hold the Seawolves off, but due to an unfortunate penalty committed by Jose Benevides, they were awarded a penalty kick that led them to score their only goal, preventing the game from becoming a shutout. 

“We were all so happy to win the first game of the season. It is not easy to start the season on the road so we are very happy with the result and performance of the team,” said Mejia, “Winning the first game of a season definitely helps you stay on the right track, but it’s only one game so we need to keep winning.” 

The game ended favorably for the Falcons and set a standard for all sports this season as it kicked off the fall season at SPU. The men now look on to this Saturday as they play Chico State, hoping to ride off the high of their first win. 

The men ended the weekend with another win as they defeated Chico State, 1-0. The goal was scored in overtime by senior forward Titus Grant.

VOLLEYBALL: 

Hoping to start the season off strong as well, the SPU volleyball team traveled to Colorado for the Oredigger Volleyball Classic hosted by the Colorado School of Mines. They competed in four overall matches during their stay this last weekend. 

The Falcons are yet to go into their second day of competition but have already played two games on the opening day of the event. The athletes fought hard but ultimately came up short against their opponents in both games; an unfortunate start to the season. 

In the first match, the Falcons faced the host of the Classic as they went up against the Orediggers, coming up short 3-0. Fortunately, there were still positive aspects of the game. 

Despite the loss, fifth-year outside hitter Maddie Batiste walked away with the most kills for the Falcons for this game, adding eight to her individual statistics for the season. 

The Falcons also lost their second match against the Colorado Christian Cougars. However, the match was much closer as SPU ended up losing three sets to two. 

The Cougars were off to a heavy lead and attempted to shut out the Falcons for the second game in a row as they won the first two sets. The Falcons, however, did not give up without a fight. 

The Falcons came back to win the next two sets against the Cougars, tying the score 2-2. The team appeared to be rallying, as they held the lead in the final set, but fell short of a win losing by two points in the last moments. The final score of the fifth set was 22-20, in favor of the Cougars. 

The star of this match for the Falcons was sophomore middle blocker Hannah Hair, who had an amazing total of 14 kills throughout all five sets. 

The Falcons now prepare for the next day of competition as they play two more games on Saturday against Colorado Mesa and Midwestern State. 

On Saturday, they added one more loss to their record getting shut out for the second time this season against Colorado Mesa losing 3-0. The women were also able to secure their first victory against Midwestern State, winning 3-1.