• FINAL STATS   |   • VIDEO: MOLLY  STINSON

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Gabriela Pelogi netted the only goal in the 18th minute Thursday for Western Washington, which extended its women's soccer winning streak to 34 games with a 1-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference win over Seattle Pacific at Harrington Field.
 
SPU (6-4-0) entered the game in second place, but didn't pick up any points while dropping its league record to 4-2-0.
 
The defending NCAA Division II national champion Vikings (10-0-0) improved to 6-0-0 in GNAC games. They are unbeaten in their last 59 conference outings, compiling a 53-0-6 mark since Oct. 13, 2013.
 
"It was a good game. They showed their championship stripes and found a way to outscore us on the night," said SPU coach Arby Busey. "This will be good for us moving forward, to come into a very difficult place to play and put forth the kind of performance that we did. Our kids played really hard, I'm proud of the effort."
 
Western capitalized on a corner kick to get an early goal. Emily Webster served a cross from the right corner that found the head of 5-foot-4 Gabriel Pelogi for the seven-yard finish at 17:13. That was the team-leading 10th goal of the season for the junior forward from Federal Way (Wash.) High School.
 
"That was a couple fantastic players on a set piece that did what they normally do. A great ball and great header," Busey described. "You tip your cap to them and you hope you find a goal for yourself to tie it up."
 


The Vikings continued to apply steady pressure and maintained the 1-0 lead into halftime on the strength of a 13-1 shot advantage. The lone SPU first-half attempt came in the third minute on an 18-yard blast by freshman Clair Neder that sailed over the crossbar.
 
The hosts registered 13 additional shots in the second half while SPU tripled its first-half output.
 
Two quick WWU chances were turned away in the 78th minute. Emily Nelson headed a ball of the crossbar and Sierra Shugarts' follow-up attempt was cleared off the goal line by SPU defender Megan Nielsen.
 
The Falcons' finest opportunity came with six minutes remaining. The team's leading scorer, Kasey Reeve, sent a header across the goal from the left side, but it was gathered by goalkeeper Ashley Homer with a dive near the right post.
 
"We were not going to get a thousand opportunities tonight, it was going to be a very limited number," said Busey. "But we felt confident that we would be able to get some with the guys that we play across the front line.
 
"No surprise Kasey found herself in a position to do that. She was able to just kind of spin the center back and put herself in a spot in front of the goal that we hoped was going to come to fruition for us, but it didn't."
 
Senior goalkeeper Molly Stinson kept SPU close with eight saves against a 26-shot barrage.
 
"She was great as usual," Busey exclaimed. "A couple big-time saves and then a lot of very routine things as is normal for her. It was great to have the ball not go in the net and she's has a big part to do with that."
 
The Falcons senior shot-stopper is averaging 4.4 saves per game and is on pace to eclipse the school's career record. Stinson's 256 saves are 15 shy of the SPU career standard of 271 established by Jennifer Hull from 2001-04.
 
Western's Homer faced four shots and needed just to save just one of them.
 
The Falcons complete their current four-game road trip against Northwest Nazarene on Saturday at noon Pacific Time.
 
SPU won this season's first meeting, defeating the Crusaders 1-0 on Sept. 23 in Seattle. Busey anticipates a similarly difficult battle on Saturday.
 
"It doesn't get any easier for us. We load up, we head home and then we turn around Friday and fly out to Idaho to play a very game Northwest Nazarene team that's had a great season thus far. It wasn't easy work at home when we played them and it will be even a taller task on the road. So we'll have to get our bodies right and perform really well over there to get a result."
 
The next home game for the SPU women is Thursday, Oct. 12 against Central Washington. Kick-off is 7 p.m. at Interbay Stadium.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017
Harrington Field / Bellingham, Wash.
 
at (#3) Western Washington 1, at Seattle Pacific 0
 
Scoring – 1, WWU, Gabriela Pelogi (Emily Webster), 17:13.
 
                       1   2  --  TOTAL
Seattle Pacific        0   0  --    0
Western Washington     1   0  --    1
 
Shots – SPU 26, WWU 4.
Saves – SPU 8 (Molly Stinson), WWU 1 (Ashley Homer).
Corner kicks – SPU 3, WWU 9.
Fouls – SPU 12, WWU 8.
Offsides – SPU 3, WWU 3.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 6-4-0, 4-2-0 GNAC
Western Washington 10-0-0, 6-0-0 GNAC
 
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene
Saturday, Oct. 7, 12:00 p.m. PDT
NNU Soccer Field / Nampa, Idaho