Seattle Pacific University’s men’s soccer team lost 1-4 against Western Oregon University on Saturday, Oct. 12. SPU stayed on their front foot and kept the pressure on Western Oregon throughout the game, creating many chances to score, but Western Oregon fought to keep SPU at bay.
Firing out from every stop, SPU had many good runs and played most of their possessions into the goal box. Western Oregon had to fight through SPU’s defense twice before opening a clear enough window to score their goals.
Head Coach Kevin Sakuda credited Western Oregon for making use of their moments.
“It was a good game. Western Oregon is a quality team,” Sakuda said. “I thought we played really well, [but] the reality is we have to be more disciplined in some of those moments, and [when you’re not] good teams punish you for it. They made it hard on us.”
Western Oregon currently has the top spot in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Division II men’s soccer rankings with an undefeated in-conference record. SPU now sits in third place in the overall GNAC with a 1-1-1 record.
Fifth-year goalkeeper Pierluca Canovale knows the team will take this loss in stride.
“It’s a team game. You win as a team, you lose this team, and you attack and defend as a team,” Carnovale said. “We have to do better. We’ll learn from the goals, and we’ll be better because of them.”
Men’s soccer will be on the road for the next game against Simon Fraser University on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 5 p.m. in Burnaby, British Columbia.
SPU women’s soccer played against Saint Martin’s University on Thursday, Oct. 10. It was a hard-fought game on both sides with neither team allowing the other any room to score. The game ended in a 0-0 tie.
SPU controlled the ball for most of the game, taking a team total of 26 shots (18 shots on goal).
Head Coach Arby Busey was proud of the team’s efforts, noting what worked and did not work during the game.
“Offensively, we needed to be more direct in our approach. We wanted to make our opponents face their goalkeeper and try to solve things from there. Defensively, we needed to be aggressive. We wanted to tackle or poke the ball away from opponents when we got there,” Busey said. “Those things happened and unfortunately, we weren’t able to score any goals.”
Junior forward Kayla Wallace highlighted the team’s successes.
“We were able to stay connected, switch the point and get the ball forward. When we were aggressive in winning the ball back, we had a lot of success not giving them too much room to play,” Wallace said. “We always expect our opponents to bring their best and we train and prepare like every team is going to take a hard-fought full 90 minutes to get a result.”
SPU women’s soccer encountered another 0-0 tie in their game against Western Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Western Oregon had three shots on goal (eight shots total) but was shot down by junior goalkeeper Mercedes Cullen. Cullen returned to SPU’s goal a second time after sitting out for the first three games of the conference. SPU outshot Western Oregon with 14 (six shots on goal).
Both teams fought hard for their moments but could not find a substantial open in each other’s defense.
SPU women’s soccer is now third overall in the GNAC standings with a 3-0-3 conference record and a 5-1-4 overall record. They will return home to Interbay Stadium for their next game against Simon Fraser on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m.
