Western Oregon Women’s Soccer Weekly Digest

The Wolves are now 3-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, and are 5-11 overall.

Salem-News.com

MONMOUTH - Home is sweet: Playing at home for only the second and third times of the season, the Western Oregon volleyball team claimed a pair of victories over the Alaska schools last week, both in four games.

Add in WOU’s victory at the Physical Education Building on Sept. 9th over Saint Martin’s, and the Wolves are now 3-0 in Monmouth this year.

Crusaders to visit: WOU will enjoy another home match before hitting the road again, hosting Northwest Nazarene on Thursday at 7 PM.

Tune in: If you can’t make it to the Physical Education Building on Thursday, you can follow the match on Live Stats. Just log on to the Wolves website at www.wouwolves.com, and click on Live Stats, found on the right side of the main page.

Classroom improvement: The Wolves young squad has been listening to their teachers, getting better and better as the year goes along. Coach Joe Houck’s team has won three of its last five matches, and in one of the losses, gave nationally ranked Central Washington a scare at home. The Wolves played the Wildcats to within two points in all four games, putting CWU’s 28-match home winning streak in jeopardy.

Jargon from Joe: “We have been working hard in practice and it is finally showing up in our matches. We started out being pretty happy to be close enough to be in a coin flip at the end of the match, but we kept missing the call. Now we have begun to show the ability to control points at the end of games. Laura (Sakala) and Shakira (Jenkins) were huge plusses for us this weekend, and we are getting pretty consistent play from Jessica (Baty), Claire (Carpenter), and Danielle (English) in the triline that has allowed us to function at a higher level offensively. Travis (assistant coach Ward) has done a great job with calling our serving game, and he really has kept consistent pressure on the opposition. Our kids are doing a great job of developing their strengths, and a better job of hiding their current weaknesses, and that has had an undeniable effect on the scoreboard.”

Kar of the Week: Shakira (shaw-KAR-a) Jenkins was named Co-GNAC Player of the Week today, sharing the honor with Western Washington’s Jamie Anderson. Jenkins, a junior transfer from Chemeketa CC, had 32 total kills in WOU’s victories over Fairbanks and Anchorage, hitting for a .300 percentage. She also had six total blocks.

Balance: Jenkins had plenty of help last week in WOU’s balanced offensive attack. Laura Sakala had 25 total kills in the two matches, Katrina Johnson had 24 and Lisa Martini added 23. Martini also had nine total blocks.

Crusader Clippings: Northwest Nazarene had just one match last week, falling at home in three games to first-place Seattle Pacific. The Crusaders are 6-7 on the season, and 2-3 in GNAC play. NNU has conference victories over Alaska Anchorage and Seattle.

Like WOU, the Crusaders have a balanced offensive attack, with five players averaging better than two kills a game, led by Lindsey Fryer (2.79). 6-0 freshman middle blocker Cammy Dranginis has been a force at the net, averaging 1.34 blocks per game.

Western Oregon won both matches between the two schools last season, and the Wolves lead the all-time series, 39-16.

Houck at Home: “It was really fun to see the crowds involved in the matches this past week, and I can't wait for another roof-raiser this Thursday with NNU.

They are a strong program, and have some quality wins this season. I am guessing the coaches will need seatbelts for the roller coaster ride both teams are on this year!

We have a ton of pride in playing at home, and I think we are gaining confidence with the early success we have had. When you really figure out how to compete, you could play in a hailstorm in the dark and win, but there is a level of confidence with our crowd behind us that has helped our young group retain their focus, and we finished tremendously this past week.”

By the numbers: In WOU’s balanced attack, junior Shakira Jenkins (Vancouver, Wash./Mt. View/Clark College) leads the team in kills with 3.15, with sophomore Katrina Johnson (Spokane, Wash./Mt. Spokane HS) is next at 2.56, followed by freshman Lisa Martini (Philomath) at 2.27. Jenkins has posted 21 kills against Incarnate Word and Central Washington this season, while Johnson had 21 against Saint Martin’s and Martini had 19 in WOU’s win over Chadron State.

Junior Claire Carpenter (Gresham/Centennial HS) leads the Wolves in digs with 3.73 per game, with freshman Jessica Baty (Pendleton) right behind at 3.02. Martini is the blocks leader with 0.82. Freshman Amy Heron (Spokane, Wash./Mead HS) has 22 aces and 6.03 assists to lead the Wolves, while junior Lisa Tedder (Jr., Coos Bay/Marshfield/St. John’s) has 4.62 assists.

Polling: The first official NCAA Division II regional polls will come out this Wednesday, Sept. 27th. In last week’s AVCA national poll, the GNAC’s Central Washington was No. 12, and Seattle Pacific was 18th.

The strategy: The Wolves will employ line-ups of various sizes and shapes throughout the season, throughout a match and maybe even throughout each game. “We have a lot of kids who can play part of the game, but may not be able to “do-it-all” as of yet,” Houck explained.

“That gives us as a coaching staff an opportunity to tweak the line up and match up with different lineups more than most teams. We have a ton of personnel and systems changes we can throw into the fray, and we should be a really tough read for the other team. The flip side is the usual lack of consistency we may experience from time to time. That type of play requires a special bond if a team is going to be consistent. We have shown signs of being that type of special team so far in practice, but it truly is a mandatory element for us this season.”

Improvement: In 2005, under first-year coach Houck, the Wolves won five more games in conference play than in 2004 and picked up three more wins overall to finish 11-15 and 9-9 in the GNAC.

Houck Headlines: Coach Joe Houck came to WOU with a 97-32 career record, gained from leading the Concordia University program for five seasons (his 51-10 record at Eastern Washington as associate head coach is not included in his career mark). Houck, who also won three state titles as a prep coach at Barlow High School in Gresham, now has a collegiate mark of 113-58.

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