Western Oregon Weekly Women’s Volleyball Digest

Salem-News.com Sports

MONMOUTH - After winning four matches in a row at the beginning of the month, the Wolves have now not won in their last five outings, moving to 4-5-2 on the season and 0-3-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Home whites: Western Oregon begins a six-match homestand Tuesday, hosting Corban College in a non-conference bout at the WOU Soccer Field at 4:00 PM. WOU will host Northwest Nazarene on Friday (4:00 PM) and George Fox on Sunday (1:00 PM).

The Wolves won’t hit the road again for over three weeks, when they travel to Western Washington on Oct. 19th.

Follow the action: Call the Wolves Sports Scoreboard after the match (503-838-8020) 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.

No net: WOU’s recent skid happens to coincide with a scoring drought as well. The Wolves have not scored in their last four matches, which includes a 0-0 tie with Central Washington last Wednesday. The Wolves also dropped contests last week to Simon Fraser (2-0) and Seattle (3-0). The Wolves were also outshot in those matches, 64-17. For recaps of those contests, click here.

Four-gone: It’s worth noting again, that even though it is over, the four-match win streak earlier this season was the first for the Wolves since the 2000 season, when coach Rod Fretz’s team won consecutive games over Northwest Nazarene, Montana State-Billings, Rocky Mountain and Seattle University.

Regional roll call: The first official NCAA regional poll, from which playoff teams will eventually be selected, will come out on Oct. 4. Last week’s NSCAA west region poll (unofficial), looked like this: (1) Seattle Pacific, (2) UC San Diego, (3) Seattle, (4) Chico State, (5) Cal State LA, (6) Sonoma State, (7) Western Washington, (8) Cal Poly Pomona, (9) Cal State Stanislaus. Nationally, Seattle Pacific listed sixth, and Seattle is No. 17.

By the numbers: WOU’s scoring is balanced thus far, with Erica Hibbard (Jr., Vancouver, Wash./Hudson’s Bay HS) leading the way with three goals, including two in the second half of WOU’s comeback win over 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. Weberg leads the team with 26 shots, followed by Maggie Kuzmer’s (So., Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River HS) 14. Both of Munyon’s goals were go-ahead scores that put the Wolves ahead for good in matches against Humboldt State and Warner Pacific...Goalkeeper Ally Meyer (Jr., Portland/Central Catholic HS) has a GAA of 1.39 with 64 saves on the season. Her save percentage is .800, and she ranks second in the GNAC saves per match (5.84) and is third in shutouts with four.

Warriors, Crusaders, Bruins: A trio of home games is on tap this week for the Wolves, beginning with Tuesday’s match against Corban.

The Warriors, former rivals of the Wolves during NAIA and Cascade Conference days, is currently 3-7 on the season. They have had the tough task of playing two nationally ranked teams in their last two matches, falling to No. 6 Concordia (5-0) and No. 12 Simon Fraser (2-1 in overtime). Megan Waunch has been involved in most of the Warrior’s scores this season, tallying three goals and five assists. Corban won the match-up between the two squads last season, and thus now leads the all-time series, 9-8. Northwest Nazarene visits on Friday as the Wolves return to GNAC play.

The Crusaders had a rough go of it last week, falling on the road to Seattle Pacific and Western Washington by identical 4-0 scores. NNU has a GNAC win to its credit this season over Central Washington, and like WOU defeated Albertson and Warner Pacific this season. The Crusaders haven’t had a lot of trouble scoring, with Katy McNutt finding the net seven times this year and she also has three assists. Carlee Stinton also has five goals. WOU won both matches between the two schools last year, and the Wolves lead the all-time series, 12-4-2. WOU will then step back out of conference play when hosting George Fox on Sunday.

The Bruins are 3-3-1 on the year and is 1-2-1 in Northwest Conference play. The Bruins have had only one home match in 2006, a 2-0 loss to Pacific Lutheran on Saturday. WOU and George Fox haven’t played since the 2001 season, and the Bruins lead the all-time series, 3-1.

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.” Fretz’s career record coming into the 2006 season was 82-98-7.

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.

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