Seattle Pacific University’s women’s soccer team defeated Simon Fraser University 3-2 on Thursday, Oct. 17, at Interbay Stadium. This was SPU’s first win in three games after tying with Saint Martin’s University and Western Oregon University the week prior.
Junior midfielder Maya Parman scored SPU’s first goal in the 12th minute. Simon Fraser responded with two goals, gaining the lead with less than a minute remaining in the first half. Sophomore forward Nora Patterson tied the score 2-2 seven seconds before halftime, keeping SPU in high spirits. Patterson scored the game-winning goal in the 79th minute.
Head coach Arby Busey said the team learned what they needed.
“We played very well last weekend in our two ties, created plenty of goal-scoring opportunities, and versus Simon Fraser, we took the chances we created well,” Busey said. “We have been playing really well, and our team continued to believe that playing this way would get us the results we wanted. We stuck to our identity and got a win against a great team.”
SPU women’s soccer returned to Interbay Stadium against Montana State University Billings on Saturday, Oct. 19, and won 3-1.
Sophomore defender Ashlyn Valdovinos scored SPU’s first goal in the 29th minute. This was Valvodinos’ first goal of the season. She thanked the team’s forwards for creating the opening.
“I honestly couldn’t have done it without the forwards getting up into the attack and creating opportunities like that,” Valdovinos said. “I just made sure I got there.”
MSU Billings responded and tied the score 1-1 before halftime. In the game’s 64th minute, an own goal was scored off the back of an MSU defender, which put SPU ahead 2-1.
Valvodinos scored again nine minutes before the clock stopped giving SPU a 3-1 win.
Busey’s one concern for the match was how long it took for SPU to score, noting how tired the team still was from their match against SFU.
“We didn’t get off to the best start we’ve ever had, and it took us a while to get our engines revved up, but once we got going, we were able to put [MSU] under a little bit more pressure and create some opportunities,” Busey said. “We’d like to have a better start in games moving forward.”
Another challenge from MSU was their formation, something SPU adapted to on the fly. Senior defender Kathryn Nyone said MSU’s aggression on defense hampered the team’s runs during the first half.
“[With] the formation they play, they have a super high press. We [usually] build out [but] when they’re pressing us that high, we have to be super precise with our passes,” Nyone said. “In the first half, we had a hard time with that, but once we were able to string passes together and play with a quick tempo, we were able to get out of it.”
SPU women’s soccer is second in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Division II women’s soccer rankings with a 5-0-3 conference record and a 7-1-4 overall record. They return to the field against Western Oregon University on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m.
