This week in Falcon Sports:

Seattle Pacific University’s Volleyball team reached the midpoint of their season this week and split the two matches they played. They were bested by Concordia (Portland) University Oct. 2, but came back to beat Western Oregon University Oct. 4.

In the loss, the Falcons lost the first two sets by margins of 25-20 and 25-16. A comeback attempt was made as the Falcons won the third set 25-21, but it was ultimately denied as CU came back to win the fourth and final set 25-15. Outside hitter Gabby Oddo led the team with 12 kills and 15 digs, and libero Mallie Donohoe had 21 digs.

In the next game, against WOU, The Falcons won three hard-fought sets to sweep away the Wolves. Oddo again led the team with 14 kills; meanwhile, outside hitter Maddie Batiste and middle blocker Gabi Stegemollar both had 11 kills. Setter Lindsey Lambert achieved a career-high with 46 assists.

“I think we played with a lot of confidence,” Head Coach Abbie Wright said after the game. “It wasn’t just hitting the ball, it was hitting with some confidence and really playing pretty fearless.”

The results this week have pushed the Falcons to a conference record of two wins and four losses.

“It’s a really tough conference, you see 2-4, and it’s easy to get bogged down by the numbers, but everybody in our conference is really good… I think we’re going to build on tonight and move forward,” Wright said after the game Saturday.

 Women’s Soccer also split its two matches this week, beating Concordia at home but losing to Western Oregon on the road.

Firing eight shots at the net in the first half and scoring one goal before the first half concluded,  the Falcons dominated most of the play against the Cavaliers. Defender Mariah Alexander intercepted a failed clearance by CU and sent a pass to forward Sophia Chilczuk, who tapped a pass to midfielder Chloe Gellhaus, who then blasted the ball past the goalie from outside the penalty area.

Head Coach Arby Busey said the timing and power with which Gellhaus scored the goal was particularly helpful in sparking the momentum that led to the Falcons’ second-half goals made by Alexander and forward Sierra Smith, clinching a 3-0 win.

Busey expects Gellhaus to get many more goals this year.

After not being scored on for three games, the tables turned when the Falcons did not score a single goal against Western Oregon. The Wolves goals were scored in the second half by Alyssa Tomasini and Isabelle Creighton. The Falcons had seven shots in the second half but were unable to make a comeback. Still, the Falcons currently hold second place in the conference standings.

The men’s soccer team had the tough task of facing the top two teams in the conference this week, losing to both Western Washington University and Simon Fraser University.

In the faceoff against Western Washington, the Vikings’ Ryan Schaefer scored just 32 seconds into the game. Forward Titus Grant got the game-tying goal in the second half, but Schaefer scored again 20 minutes later, and a goal by Alessandro Tomasi gave the Vikings a 3-1 win.

The team then played against Simon Fraser University, and Clan forward William Raphael scored three goals in the first 30 minutes of the game to put the Falcons in an early hole. 

The Falcons continued to fight, as Grant scored a penalty kick and Ed Weise scored a header off a corner kick to make it 3-2. 

The Falcons had two more goals disallowed and a penalty kick saved, and Connor Glennon scored a late goal for the Clan to give them a 4-2 win.

Men’s cross country was back in action after a week off and they finished third in the John Payne/Curtis Invitational, which took place in Tacoma. They finished third in the team-scores with 90 points, beating the fellow GNAC schools of Central Washington University and Saint Martin’s University.

The top finishers for the Falcons were Elius Graff, Colin Boutin and Jared Putney who finished consecutively in spots 19, 20 and 21. Colby Otero finished 26th and Sheamus Mahoney finished 35th to round out the team’s top five finishers.

Both men’s and women’s cross country will return to the course next week at the Western Washington Classic in Bellingham, Washington.