Senior Kyrsten McGuffey scored on a header in the 12th minute and Western Washington women’s soccer fought to a 1-1 draw with Western Oregon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play Saturday, Oct. 5 at Harrington Field.
Western has struggled to find the back of the net and the win column. In their last four games, the Vikings have scored at least one goal and have two wins and two draws.
“Fall sports are like this, where you don’t have much time to prepare for your first game,” Western coach Travis Connell said. “You see a lot of improvement in the beginning of the year and we are still seeing a lot of that. This is a challenging game, but I thought we did really well because there wasn’t much that separated these two teams.”
Gallery: Western women’s soccer ties Western Oregon
The Vikings took advantage of early momentum from a packed and rowdy crowd. The Vikings’ 2016 and 2022 national championship teams were honored at halftime after being inducted into the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame before the game.
“It was great playing in front of the players who set the legacy here,” McGuffey said. “It was a great energy in an ugly game against this team.”
McGuffey scored a header on a corner-kick assist from Halle Noel in the 12th minute to put the Vikings up early. They had a few other close opportunities in their five corner-kick attempts and a handful of free kicks outside the box.
“(Set pieces) are something we have been solid on and it is something we can score more on,” McGuffey said. “You can see improvement each game.”
Western Oregon’s first opportunity came in the 28th minute when Haley King’s shot sailed over the crossbar. Western Oregon’s Ally Beavers also fired a shot in the 30tb minute, forcing Western’s Abigail Trengrove to make a leaping save.
Western’s final opportunity in the first half came in the final minutes when Emily Rice’s free-kick attempt was saved by Wolves’ keeper Sophia Pierce.
In the second half, Ashley Nguyen saw a slow cross arrive at her feet but the shot was saved by a sliding Pierce. Neither team had a clear shot on net with 15 minutes remaining. Western Oregon found its opportunity in the 77th minute after a Western defender tripped a player in the 18-yard box.
Beavers took the penalty kick, rifled it to the left and deflected off Trengrove’s gloves into the back of the net. Western’s Mie Cairns took the final shot in the 87th minute and Pierce made a leaping save to secure the draw.
“We still haven’t shown how good we can play and the pieces are just clicking together,” McGuffey said.
Western (3-2-4, 2-0-2 GNAC) next travels to Central Washington University (1-3-2, 0-2-1 GNAC) for a 7 p.m. match Thursday, Oct. 10.
Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN's sports reporter; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
