4-1-1 Wolves open GNAC play with No. 6 Falcons

Western Oregon picked up three wins last week, running its win streak to four straight, while moving to 4-1-1 on the season.

Salem-News.com Sports

MONMOUTH - Good week: Western Oregon picked up three wins last week, running its win streak to four straight, while moving to 4-1-1 on the season. With wins over Warner Pacific (4-0), Lewis & Clark (2-1) and Albertson (3-2, ot) WOU now grids for No. 6 nationally ranked Seattle Pacific, this Wednesday (4:00 PM) at the WOU Soccer Field. The Wolves will also host Western Washington in another Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest on Sunday (Sept. 17), at 1:00 PM. For recaps of WOU's victories last week and/or statistics, log on to www.wouwolves.com.

Four streaking: The Wolves haven’t had a four-match win streak since early in the 2000 season, when coach Rod Fretz’s team won consecutive games over Northwest Nazarene, Montana State-Billings, Rocky Mountain and Seattle University. The Wolves are ranked 10th in the unofficial west region poll (NSCAA).

Follow the action: Call the Wolves Sports Scoreboard after the match (838-8020) or log on to WOU’s site at www.wouwolves.com to get complete results. For WOU home matches, you can follow along through Live Stats on the WOU website.

Offensive output: After scoring just one goal in their first three matches, the Wolves have opened up the offense a bit with nine goals in three outings last week. Erica Hibbard (Jr., Vancouver, Wash./Hudson’s Bay HS) had three of those goals, including two in the second half of WOU’s comeback win against Albertson. Amy Weberg (Sr., Ridgefield, Wash./Skyview HS) has two goals and an assist, and Lisa Munyon (Sr., Medford, Ore./South Medford HS) also has found the net twice thus far.

The buck stops here: Junior goalie Ally Meyer (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic HS) has 35 saves and a 0.95 GAA. She has three shutouts this season, against Chico State, Humboldt State and Warner Pacific.

Rod’s remarks (last week): “While the nonconference games are a little tougher to get up for than matches against Division II teams, we showed a strong resilience in coming back for two games in two days. Their determination to fight through tough situations is better than last year. And, getting a lot of game time in over six days is a great way for the on-field chemistry to keep developing.”

Rod’s remarks (week ahead): “This week will be tough, but hopefully we will approach Seattle Pacific with some confidence from our success up to this point. They will be the best team we have faced, and we will have to take care of business at all times defensively. Western Washington is also playing very well right now, and will have a potent offense that will require our best defensive play to stay in the game. This is the week that will really measure where we are at as a team at this stage of the season.”

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 at 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.”

Falcon forecast, Viking verbage: The Seattle Pacific Falcons, 5-1 on the year, was ranked sixth in last week’s NSCAA/adidas NCAA Division II national poll. The Falcons were also listed at the top of the Far West region poll. SPU, the defending league champs, have a 44-match GNAC win streak, and are the clear favorites to at least capture the conference title again. The Falcons advanced to the NCAA title match a year ago, and are loaded again in 2006. SPU’s lone loss this fall was to Cal State LA on Sept. 2. Seattle Pacific owns an 8-2 all-time series lead over the Wolves, and has won the last seven matches between the two teams. Western Washington sits 3-2 on the season, going into a match with Evergreen State today (Monday). The Vikings dropped a 3-1 contest to Cal State Stanislaus last Tuesday, and will play Grand Canyon on Thursday before arriving on Sunday to play the Wolves. WWU has solid wins over Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State LA this year, and are ranked fourth in the latest regional poll. Western Washington holds an all-time 12-5 series lead over the Wolves, but the two clubs split their matches in 2005.

Regional roll call: Last week’s NSCAA west region poll (unofficial), looked like this: (1) Seattle Pacific, (2) Seattle, (3) UC San Diego, (4) Western Washington, (5) Sonoma State, (6) Cal State LA, (7) Cal Poly Pomona, (8) Cal State Stanislaus, (9) Chico State, (10) Western 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.

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. 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