BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The fourth-ranked Falcons left no doubt that they are the dominant force in 2021 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's soccer.
 
Nine days after securing the league's regular-season title, Seattle Pacific captured the GNAC Tournament championship on Saturday with an impressive 4-0 thrashing of No. 13 Western Washington at Harrington Field.
 
"It's a special group of women and it's one of those where in the biggest moment they rose to the challenge and played as well as they've played all season long. They were big-time today," exclaimed SPU's Arby Busey, who was named the GNAC Coach of the Year on Tuesday.
 
The top-seeded Falcons (17-1-1) stretched their unbeaten streak to 13 games with eight straight wins and a 12-0-1 record during that span. They reached the 17-win mark, matching the 2011 squad for the program's highest total since SPU's 2008 national championship team finished with a 22-1-2 record.
 
As has been the case all season, a broad range of players contributed to the victory.
 
Sophie Beadle started the scoring just 92 seconds into the game.

SOPHIE BEADLE GOAL

"It's huge to get an early goal, especially in a conference final," Busey said. "It takes a little of the edge off, settles you into the game in the best way possible and puts you in a really good position to then attack the rest of the game.
 
"It was a great play by Beadle. She was confident and composed in that moment and just kind of rolled it in. That got us going and gave us a ton of momentum at the beginning of that game."
 
Beadle assisted on the second score, in the 24th minute.
 
The goal that doubled the lead came off the foot of senior midfielder Makena Rietz, the GNAC Player of the Year. She struck again eight minutes after halftime to conclude the scoring. That score was set up by Sophia Chilczuk as was SPU's third goal, a 51st-minute strike by Chloe Gellhaus.
 
 

MAY I ASSIST YOU
A senior forward, Chilczuk was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and for good reason. She contributed two assists in each outing, including Thursday's 2-1 semifinal win over Simon Fraser.
 
Chilczuk currently leads all NCAA Division II players with 17 assists, a figure that now stands as the SPU single-season standard along with the GNAC record. The school's previous record of 16 assists was established in 2007 by Meredith Teague.
 
That's not the only record that Teague may lose. Chilczuk increased her career total to 34 assists, drawing level with Teague for the SPU record.
 
"Sophia is a very giving, unselfish person. That's manifested itself on the field in the form of setting up teammate time-and-time again," said Busey. "The work that she does for us, the amount of attention that she draws has been huge for us this fall.
 
"She creates so much space and opportunity for other people. For somebody who has scored as many goals as she has, this transition to one of the nation's best providers this year has been really amazing."

TOURNAMENT TALK
This is the Falcons third title in the nine seasons the GNAC Tournament has been contested. It's their first without the benefit of a tiebreaker. SPU claimed back-to-back championships, in 2013 and 2014, by virtue of shootout wins over Western Washington.
 
The visitors gained a measure of revenge against the second-seeded Vikings, who won their record fifth GNAC Tournament championship in 2019 with a 2-1 win over Seattle Pacific. That game was played at the Falcons Interbay Stadium.
 
Saturday's final featured familiar faces as these same two teams have met in six of the nine championship games since the playoff format was implemented in 2012. They each won three of the head-to-head title game encounters.
 
PLAYOFF PICTURE
Saturday's victory guaranteed that Seattle Pacific will participate in the NCAA Division II Tournament after receiving the GNAC's automatic berth. It likely secured the No. 1 seed in the West Region for the Falcons, who have been ranked in that spot all season.
 
If selected as a top-two seed, SPU will host a first-round matchup between two teams on Thursday. Kick-off for that game would be 2:00 p.m. at Interbay Stadium where the Falcons would face the winner on Saturday (Nov. 20) at 1:00 p.m.
 
"This game books your ticket to the NCAA Tournament. We played in this game in recent years with kind of our life on the line and not gotten the result," Busey explained. "To have another opportunity today to go out and play for the conference championship to get straight into the NCAA Tournament was something that we talked about before the game being a special moment.
 
"We worked really hard to get here and we wanted to go out and enjoy it together. It was certainly an enjoyable day for all of us in an SPU kit."
 
Western Washington (14-4-3) must wait until Monday to discover if an at-large invitation to next week's playoffs will be issued. That seems inevitable as the Vikings were listed second in the West in the most recent regional rankings.

CHLOE GELLHAUS GOAL

RIVALS REMATCH
SPU won both regular-season meetings versus the Vikings. They got a 1-0 overtime win on Oct. 9 in Seattle, getting a 95th-minute golden goal from Claire Neder.
 
The Falcons won the rematch 3-0 on Oct. 21 in Bellingham behind a goal and assist from Chilczuk. Rietz found the back of the net just 51 seconds after the opening kickoff.
 
As they did in the last matchup, SPU snared an early goal on Saturday. This one came 1-minute, 32-seconds into the contest.

SCORING SUMMARY
Beadle pressed Karina Provo, who whiffed on a header and failed in an effort to clear the ball from the center of the field. Instead, Beadle swiped the ball from the defender, took a dribble into the box and won the one-on-one battle versus the goalkeeper with a low, 15-yard shot to the right side of the goal. That was the seventh goal for the speedy sophomore forward.
 
Through 17 minutes that was still the game's only shot for either team as both defenses were well organized.
 
A Gellhaus header went well wide at 17:10 and 40 seconds later Chilczuk lined a 26-yard attempt just outside of the right post.
 
SPU found a second goal at 23:06, and Beadle was involved again. Her cross from the right flank was served to the far post. Rietz won the race to the ball and hit a left-footed volley just before it hit the ground. Her four-yard shot slammed between the left post and lunging goalkeeper Natalie Dierickx.
 
That 2-0 scoreline held into intermission following a half thoroughly controlled by the Falcons. They registered an 11-0 shot advantage in the opening 45 minutes.
 
Western didn't try a shot until the 47th minute when Ashley Nguyen had her attempt blocked. The hosts did manage an 8-7 shot edge over the second half, but put only one on frame, a 52nd-minute boot by Makenzie Burks that was easily handled by goalkeeper Riley Travis.
 
Gellhaus got the Falcons third goal at 50:55. She controlled a bouncing ball just outside the top of the box and calmly created a channel to direct a shot into the top-left corner. That was the sixth goal for the junior midfielder.
 
MAKENA RIETZ 2ND GOAL

 Rietz capped the scoring at 53:13, pouncing on a ball that deflected off a defender's heel and quickly depositing it into the right side of the goal with a low boot from the top of the 6-yard box. That was the team-leading 12th goal for Rietz, who moved into a tied with Western's Jenna Killman for the league leadership.
 
DYNAMIC DEFENSE
SPU's defense continued its stingy ways. That unit allowed only eight opposing goals all season and none of those came on Saturday.
 
The backline players prevented all but one shot directly on goal by the Vikings and Travis handled that for her only save of the game.
 
The senior goalkeeper posted her eighth clean sheet. Travis participated in three other shutouts for the Falcons who have blanked 12 foes this season.
 
Travis shared first-team All-GNAC goalkeeping honors with WWU's Dierickx, who stopped four shots before departing in the 63rd minute. Backup Claire Henninger was not called upon to make a save in the final 27 minutes.
 
COACH ARBY BUSEY INTERVIEW

UPCOMING ACTION
The Falcons will discover their NCAA playoff path on Monday when the 56-team field will be revealed. The women's soccer selection show airs at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time online at www.ncaa.com
 
"There will still be some nerves Monday, until you see your team name up there," Busey projected. "We'll likely be the No. 1 seed, but if not and they ship us off somewhere then we'll take the show on the road. There's anticipation of who we might play, where we might go, what the path is moving forward."
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
GNAC Tournament -- Championship Game
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Harrington Field / Bellingham, Wash.
 
(#4) Seattle Pacific 4, at (#13) Western Washington 0
 
Scoring – 1, SPU, Sophie Beadle (unassisted), 1:32; 2, SPU, Makena Rietz (Beadle), 23:06; 3, SPU, Chloe Gellhaus (Sophia Chilczuk), 50:55; 4, SPU, Rietz (Chilczuk), 53:13.
 
                        1   2   TOTAL
Seattle Pacific         2   2  -  4
Western Washington      0   0  -  0
 
Shots – SPU 18, WWU 8.
Shots on Goal – SPU 8, WWU 1.
Saves – SPU 1 (Riley Travis), WWU 4 (Natalie Dierickx 4, Claire Henninger 0).
Corner Kicks – SPU 2, WWU 2.
Fouls – SPU 14, WWU 12.
Offsides – SPU 2, WWU 0.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 17-1-1
Western Washington 14-4-3
 
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
NCAA Division II Tournament
Teams TBA
November 18 & 20, TBA