WOU Weekly Women’s Soccer Digest

The women Wolves face powerhouse Chico State and Humboldt State this weekend.

Salem-Neww.com Sports

MONMOUTH - The WOU women’s soccer team will take its first road trip of the 2006 season, traveling to Northern California to take on Chico State (Friday, 7:30 PM) and Humboldt State (Sunday, 1:00 PM). Both squads are members of the NCAA Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association.

Seawolves douse Wolves: The Wolves opened the campaign with a 3-0 loss to Sonoma State at home on Saturday. WOU was tied with the CCAA squad after a scoreless first half, but the Seawolves opened things up after the break with three goals during a stretch of 18 minutes to salt the win.

Looking ahead: The Wolves will return home on Sept. 5th for a non-conference match against Warner Pacific, and will follow that with battles at Lewis & Clark (Sept. 8th) and at home versus Albertson (Sept. 9th). On Sept. 13th, WOU opens Great Northwest Athletic Conference play by hosting No. 2 nationally ranked and defending conference champion Seattle Pacific.

‘Cats and ‘Jacks: The Wolves will face one of the favorites in the CCAA in Chico State on Friday. The Wildcats were 14-5-3 a year ago, including a 9-2-3 record in conference play and a West Region playoff berth. From that powerhouse, they return nine starters and 17 letterwinners. Chico State has won all three previous meetings between the two schools.

Humboldt State went 9-9-2 overall in 2005 and they were 5-5-2 in the GNAC...but have since left WOU’s conference to join the CCAA. The Lumberjacks won both verdicts over the Wolves last season, 3-0 and 2-1, and HSU leads the all-time series, 8-5-1. The ‘Jacks opened its season on Sunday with a 4-0 win over Southern Oregon.

If you have your health, you have everything: Western’s 2005 campaign was filled with medical updates and the bench was layered with players in street clothes and on crutches. Towards the end of the season, coach Rod Fretz often only had one or two players available off the bench as the Wolves finished 8-12 overall and 5-7 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. This year, 22 players reported to camp, including 13 letterwinners and eight starters, all of them healthy.

Veteran Trio: Three of those players returning for the Wolves were All-GNAC selections a year ago. Erica Hibbard was a first team pick last year as a sophomore, while current seniors Amy Weberg and Lisa Munyon were also on the list.

Rod on Wolves: “Last year, we had three or four players tabbed to be starters that saw limited time because of injuries. Our depth took a pounding and left us very shorthanded for what seemed like most of the season.

We will be much stronger this year. We will be much deeper with a good mix of veterans and a few newcomers that will step in and play right away.”

Two are better than one: For the past 10 seasons, Rod Fretz has been the only coach that the WOU soccer program has ever known. But this year, Fretz will share the duties with long-time assistant Kevin Plechl, giving both men the title of co-head coach. Plechl, a former standout player North Salem and Willamette, as been on the WOU sidelines for nine seasons and has a vast coaching background at the club level. “Kevin has progressively taken on more and more of the responsibilities in all areas of our program,” Fretz explained. “He plans the daily practice sessions and runs the majority of the on-field training. Because of some family matters, I may be away from the team from time to time, and this only makes sense to give Kevin the title to go with his added responsibilities.”

The coaches speak: The pre-season poll in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, voted on by the league’s coaches, has Seattle Pacific unanimously tabbed to repeat as champions. The Falcons, who are also ranked second in the NCAA Division II pre-season poll, have not lost a GNAC contest since 2003, and will carry a 57-match winning streak into their conference opener at WOU on Sept. 13. Here is how the rest of the poll went. (1) Seattle Pacific, (2) Seattle, (3) Western Washington, (4) Central Washington, (5) Western Oregon, (6) Northwest Nazarene.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports