The 2023 Seattle Pacific University women’s soccer regular season wrapped up on Saturday, Nov. 4, with a 1-1 tie against Simon Fraser University. The Falcons won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season championship, finishing conference play 9-0-5 while going 12-2-5 overall. 

The Falcons dominated the conference in goal-scoring, netting 36 goals over 19 games, 14 more than Western Oregon University, the second-highest-scoring team in the conference. 

Women’s soccer head coach Arby Busey attributes this to having a well-organized team up and down the field.

“I think, for us, keys have been the ability to build from the back, using our goalkeeper, using our back line, and using our midfield players to put our front players in good positions to have high-percentage opportunities,” Busey stated. “So it’s a full-team situation in terms of creating the opportunities that we’re able to create as consistently as we are.”

Assistant coach Sydney Pluhacek made a similar observation about the team being built from the back, giving credit to the team’s lead goalkeeper, sophomore applied mathematics major Mercedes Cullen.

“She’s having a huge voice in the back and has definitely helped the confidence of our back line,” Pluhacek noted.

The team has senior leadership all throughout the lineup. Mackenzie Aiken and Marissa Bankey anchor the defense, and Chloe Gellhaus controls the midfield. Winger Sophie Beadle leads the GNAC in assists with seven, and striker Jacqueline Blakeley leads the GNAC in goals, also with seven.

Blakeley expressed joy over her accomplishment, noting how it ties in nicely with her past.

“I’ve done it in high school, my freshman year. I was player of the year,” Blakeley said. “So, it’s really exciting to do it my senior year. It’s kind of like a full-circle moment.”

The seniors are the team’s strong pillars that hold up the room where the developing freshmen can roam. This is enhanced by the fact that SPU’s senior class experienced the team’s 2021 run to the DII NCAA quarterfinals. Busey observed as much, also noting the cyclical effect such experiences have on the team over the course of time.

“The younger players have the ability to lean into the older ones, who have those experiences, and who have been there and done that, for guidance and for role-modeling and leadership in those moments,” Busey stated.

The young players themselves echo this sentiment. Lauren Rife, a freshman nursing major who plays as a forward for the Falcons, expressed great respect for the wisdom and optimism of the team’s seniors.

“Whenever anyone is struggling or feeling down, they know how to bring us up, and they keep the team in a really good place,” Rife said. “Their positive energy and positive mindset really keep us going and encourage us to get better every day.”

Rife also thanked the coaching staff for contributing to the team’s success.

“I think that they deserve just as much recognition as we get,” Rife stated. “They work so hard to create practice plans and scout for us, and they’re always there when we need them.”

One of the greatest encouraging factors, though, is the record itself. Right now, the Falcons are nested atop the GNAC, with all other teams looking to knock them off their perch.

Freshman goalkeeper Landry Schoennauer took note of the motivation that an opponent’s envy provides.

“I feel like it’s very encouraging to know that we’re the team that everybody wants to beat. It just keeps us playing at our highest,” Schoennauer said. 

However, the team still needs to secure their place in the sun. While they took the GNAC regular season title, the GNAC championship tournament remains ahead. 

The Falcons lost in the GNAC semifinal in 2022 to Northwest Nazarene. Busey hopes that the experience of that loss, as well as the one in the NCAA quarterfinals in 2021, has prepared the team to go further in 2023.

“I think the ability to have those two different experiences and reflect on them is something that we’ll use as we go into the conference championship this year.” Busey said. 

Pulling back from grander aspirations, the Falcons will take everything one game at a time, starting with the GNAC semifinal on Nov. 9.

“Regardless of who makes it, who we draw in that semifinal, we’re going to have our hands full, and we’ll have to prepare really, really well to play really, really well to get a result,” Busey observed.