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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 --
(#8) Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
3:00 p.m. PDT, SMU Soccer Field, Lacey, Wash.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 --
(#8) Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon
11:00 a.m. PDT, WOU Soccer Field, Monmouth, Ore.

The eighth-ranked Seattle Pacific women's soccer team (5-0-1, 2-0 GNAC) concludes its Great Northwest Athletic Conference road trip with two games this week. The Falcons visit Saint Martin's (1-5-0, 0-2 GNAC) on Thursday, Sept. 23 at 3 p.m. before traveling to Monmouth, Ore. for a Saturday, Sept. 25 clash with Western Oregon (1-5-0, 0-2 GNAC) at 11 a.m. SPU opened GNAC play with a pair of wins, 3-0 at home over Montana State Billings and 2-0 at Northwest Nazarene. The Falcons registered shutouts in five of their six games this season. SPU returns home next week to host 20th-ranked Western Washington on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.



No Live Coverage
There are no webcasts or LiveStats feeds scheduled for either game this week. Live stats are available during all SPU home soccer games and can be accessed via the internet at: http://www.sidearmstats.com/spu/wsoc

Magnificent Maddie
SPU senior goalkeeper Maddie Dickinson is on the verge of tying the school shutout record. She has 24 career shutouts, just one shy of the school record of 25 established by Jennifer Hull from 2001-04. Dickinson has five shutouts and surrendered just one goal in 579 minutes this season. The product of Skyview High School in Vancouver, Wash. was the Sept. 14 GNAC Athlete of the Week. She currently leads the GNAC and ranks No. 7 nationally with a 0.16 goals against average and a save percentage of 95.2%. Dickinson put together a school-record scoreless streak of 1,012-minutes, 12-seconds from 2008-09 that included a 1-0 double-overtime win over West Florida in the 2008 NCAA Division II championship game.

Poll Patter
SPU vaulted 11 spots, to No. 8, in this week's national rankings. The Falcons opened the season at No. 17 in the NSCAA poll and spent last week at No. 19. They were listed in the No. 1 position in last year's preseason rankings and sustained that spot for five weeks.

GNAC Title Chase
The Seattle Pacific women's soccer team was picked 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.

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 of the playoffs, battling 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
Saint Martin's (1-5-0, 0-2-0 GNAC) -- The Saints lost their last three games, including their first two conference outings. They lost 4-0 at Simon Fraser and 2-1 at Western Washington. Jill Webb leads the SMU attack with three goals. Goalkeeper Gina Cardenas averages six saves per game. SPU won all six previous meetings with the Saints, including a 3-0 decision on Sept. 19, 2009 in Seattle and 2-0 on Oct. 14 in Lacey during the most recent encounter.

Western Oregon (1-5-0, 0-2-0 GNAC) -- The Wolves lost their last three games by shutout, including a pair of GNAC contests, at Western Washington (7-0) and at Simon Fraser (2-0). Four different players have accounted for the WOU goals. Goalkeeper Brittney Rigtrup averages six saves per game. SPU won the last 14 meetings to take a 15-2 series lead. The Falcons won 5-0 last season in Seattle (Sept. 30) and 3-0 in Monmouth (Sept. 17).

Player of the Week
SPU sophomore midfielder Brittany Langdon (Irvine, Calif./Northwood HS), who netted the winning goal in both games last week, received the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Co-Athlete of the Week award for women's soccer on Monday. Langdon scored the only goals SPU needed in a pair of shutout victories against league opponents. She headed in a corner kick from Kendall Thoreson in the 22nd minute of a 3-0 home win over Montana State Billings on Sept. 16. In Saturday's 2-0 win at Northwest Nazarene, Langdon again opened the scoring with the lone first-half goal. She received a through pass from defender Andrea Chan in the 26th minute and chipped a 25-yard shot over NNU's onrushing goalkeeper.

Coach Chuck Sekyra
In his eighth season, Chuck Sekyra has guided Seattle Pacific to a remarkable 139-14-13 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.

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.

All in the Family
Like father, like daughter. Junior midfielder Kelsey Jenkins is making the type of impact you might expect from the offspring of a standout professional player. She netted five goals last season and three of them were game-winning tallies. Jenkins also distributed a team-leading eight assists, including a pass that set up Amanda Johnson's game-winning goal on Sept. 26 against Central Washington. Jenkins is a native of Kent, Wash., who prepped at Kentwood High School. Her father, Tommy Jenkins, was a left winger with several English clubs between 1966-75, including a three-season stint from 1969-72 with Southampton of the First Division. Tommy then came to Seattle to play from 1976-79 with the Sounders of the NASL.