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     • LiveStats (Sept. 16)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 –
Montana State Billings at (#19) Seattle Pacific
7:00 p.m. PDT, Interbay Stadium (900), Seattle, Wash.
LiveStats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/spu/wsoc/

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 –
(#19) Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene
11:00 a.m. PDT (12:00 p.m. MDT), NNU Soccer Field, Nampa, Idaho

The 19th-ranked Seattle Pacific women's soccer team (3-0-1) begins defense of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference title this week. The Falcons open league play at home against Montana State Billings (3-0-1) on Thursday, Sept. 16. Kick-off is 7 p.m. at Interbay Stadium. SPU has never lost in eight all-time meetings with the Yellowjackets. On Saturday, Sept. 18 the Falcons visit Nampa, Idaho to play Northwest Nazarene at 11 a.m. Pacific Time (noon Mountain Time) at NNU Soccer Field. SPU leads the all-time series by a 17-1-0 margin.



GNAC Title Chase
The Seattle Pacific women's soccer team was projected by the league's coaches to repeat as Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion. The Falcons captured the 2009 conference crown with a 9-2-1 record. They have won six of the nine titles since the GNAC began sponsoring women's soccer in 2001. SPU collected six of eight first-place votes in the 2010 preseason poll en route to a 62-point total. Western Washington, the 2008 league champion and last year's runner-up, received one first-place vote. The Vikings were projected second by the league's coaches with 56 points and Saint Martin's was third with 43. Central Washington, which garnered one first-place vote, tied for fourth in the preseason projections with 34 points. That is the same point total compiled by Simon Fraser, which begins its first season as an NCAA Division II competitor and member of the GNAC. Montana State Billings was selected sixth (30), followed by Western Oregon (20) and Northwest Nazarene (10).

Ticket Talk
Tickets for SPU soccer games can be purchased on game day at Interbay Stadium (3027 17th Ave. W., Seattle 98119). Ticket windows open one hour prior to kickoff. All seats are general admission and priced at $6 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. SPU students and staff are admitted free. Groups or teams of 10 or more may qualify for reduced ticket rates by calling (206) 281-2085 in advance.

Home Sweet Home
Seattle Pacific has not lost at Interbay Stadium since a 1-0 setback against Seattle University on Sept. 30, 2006. The Falcons compiled a 41-0-3 home record since then, including a perfect 15-0 mark in 2007, 11-0-2 in 2008 and 11-0-1 last season.

Playoff Pursuit
Seattle Pacific seeks to return to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the eighth straight year. The Falcons won the 2008 national championship. Last season they were eliminated in the first round, playing Chico State to a scoreless tie before falling 4-3 in a penalty-kick tiebreaker. SPU advanced to the Final Four in three of the last five years.

Season Preview
Eight starters return from the SPU squad that compiled a 16-3-2 overall record in 2009, won its sixth GNAC title and earned its seventh straight postseason invitation. One of the three starters SPU needs to replace is forward Jocelyn Charette who completed her collegiate career last fall with 15 goals and the GNAC Player of the Year award. Heading the list of returning standouts is senior goalkeeper Maddie Dickinson who was honored as an all-region selection after recording nine shutouts and a 0.57 goals against average in 2009. The defense is anchored by sophomore defender Taylor Sawyer who reaped All-America accolades after her rookie season. The offense features junior midfielder Kelsey Jenkins who netted five goals and a distributed a team-high eight assists. Jenkins was joined on the first-team All-GNAC squad by senior forward Amanda Johnson. Sophomore forward Megan Lindsay was SPU's second-leading scorer with six goals in 2009. SPU was picked to repeat as GNAC champions, receiving six of eight first-place votes.

The Opponents
Montana State Billings (3-0-1, 0-0-0 GNAC) -- The Yellowjackets are undefeated, outscoring opponents 10-3. Jennifer Larsen and Heidi Greenback lead the MSUB attack with three goals apiece. The Falcons won all eight previous matchups and had not allowed a goal in the series until a 3-2 overtime win on Nov. 5, 2009 in Billings during the most recent meeting. Jocelyn Charette won that game with a 99th-minute goal. SPU has outscored MSUB 24-2 all-time including 4-0 last season in Seattle.

Northwest Nazarene (2-2-0, 0-0-0 GNAC) -- The Crusaders are outscoring foes by a 10-5 margin. Autumn Yturbe paces the offense with three goals and two assists. Goalkeeper Tanya Zickefoose has one shutout and a 1.25 goals against average. NNU trails the all-time series with SPU by a 17-1-0 margin, their lone win coming in 2001. The Falcons swept last season's two games by a combined 13-0 score. SPU won 7-0 on Oct. 17 in Nampa, Idaho and 6-0 on Nov. 7 in Seattle.

Poll Patter
SPU dropped two spots, to No. 19 in this week's (Sept. 14) national coach rankings. The Falcons opened the season ranked No. 17 in the NSCAA poll. They were listed in the No. 1 position in last year's preseason rankings and sustained that spot for five weeks.

Coach Chuck Sekyra
In his eighth season, Chuck Sekyra has guided Seattle Pacific to a remarkable 137-14-13 record, three Final Four appearances and the 2008 national championship. He directed five of those teams to GNAC championships, and all seven of his squads participated in the NCAA tournament. His Falcons advanced to the 2005 championship game. Sekyra was a defender on the SPU men's soccer teams that won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1985 and 1986. He served as an assistant men's coach at SPU in 1998 and 1999 under Cliff McCrath, then was an assistant women's coach at Washington for three years before being named head coach of the SPU women in 2003. Sekyra was named GNAC Coach of the Year five times (2003-05, '07, '09) and the Regional Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2007. He received the NSCAA National Coach of the Year award in 2007.

Player of the Week
SPU senior goalkeeper Maddie Dickinson, who has surrendered just one goal in 399 minutes this season, received the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week award for women's soccer on Monday. She compiled 11 saves and allowed a single goal during a pair of overtime games last week in Hawaii, helping the Falcons complete their non-conference schedule with a 3-0-1 record. Dickinson stopped six shots and registered her third shutout in a scoreless tie with BYU-Hawaii on Sept. 8. On Sept. 11 against Hawaii Pacific, she was credited with five saves in SPU's 2-1 double-overtime victory that was won by Savanna Hanson's 110th-minute golden goal. Dickinson currently leads the GNAC with a 0.23 goals against average and is second in save percentage at 92.3%. Dickinson now has 22 career collegiate clean sheets. She is within three shutouts of the school's all-time leader Jennifer Hull who blanked 25 opponents from 2001-04.

2009 Review
The 2009 season ended abruptly as SPU was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA playoffs by Chico State, which won a penalty kick tiebreaker 4-3 after a scoreless tie. The Falcons forged a 16-3-2 overall record, earned their seventh straight postseason invitation and won their sixth GNAC championship. Some lengthy SPU streaks were snapped. The Falcons' 3-2 loss at Western Washington (Oct. 3) stopped a 27-game unbeaten streak, including a 21-game winning skein. The Vikings halted SPU's streak of 11 consecutive shutouts that was the fourth-longest in all-time NCAA Division II women's soccer history. WWU's first goal, in the fifth minute, halted the school-record scoreless streak of 1,048-minutes, 6-seconds compiled by the Falcons.