SEATTLE -- Their season came to an end sooner than expected. But the Falcons finished with a flourish.
 
Two hours before the kick-off of Wednesday night's final home women's soccer contest, the Seattle Pacific women's soccer players found out that this was their last game. Saturday's scheduled season-ending game at Central Washington was canceled by the hosts due to an abundance of caution for the health and safety of student-athletes and staff.
 
"It was an interesting day to have that news come late, entering this game, and letting our players know that this would be the last hurrah for the season," SPU coach Arby Busey described. "It's disappointing news because we want to continue to play, we want to keep riding this thing.
 
"At the same time, I thought that the players handled it as they've handled everything since last March with the situation that we all find ourselves in. They made this last one a great one, and made it a celebration of who we've been all spring."
 
The Falcons learned that they had 90 minutes left to play and made the most of it -- especially the final 45 minutes.
 
Four second-half scores, including two goals from Claire Neder, sparked seventh-ranked SPU's rally for a 4-1 victory over Western Washington at Interbay Stadium.

MARIAH ALEXANDER INTERVIEW

The Falcons halted a recent stretch of struggles in the series, beating WWU for the first time since October 27, 2012. They were winless in the previous 21 meetings, as the Vikings compiled a 17-0-4 record during that span.
 
The unique 2021 spring campaign came to close for SPU (8-0-1) without a loss on the ledger.
 
A spectacular offense continued to thrive for the Falcons, who extended a spectacular season-long streak of registering at least four goals in every game, including a trio of five-goal outbursts. They outscored opponents by a combined 39-7 margin while posting six clean sheets.
 
"Goals have come in bunches for this group all year long. Typically they've come earlier in games than they did tonight, but we had to wait," Busey said. "Once they started coming, this group gained a lot of confidence and started to really press to create that second and third and, somehow again tonight, a fourth.
 
"It's been a fun ride. They did it again against a really good team. It makes it hard to lose when you have four goals on the board."
 
Western (3-1-2) suffered its first setback despite leading 1-0 at halftime on a 28th-minute goal by Grace Eversaul.
 
Defender Mariah Alexander leveled the score, 1-1, in the 56th minute on a corner kick by Falcons teammate Ava Giovanola.
 
"Mariah is such a competitor. She's amazing on corner kicks," said Busey. "She's not the biggest, tallest kid, but she does an amazing job of reading the ball and putting her body in places that she can redirect it. Tonight, she just kind of threw her body at it and did whatever it took to get it in the net. That definitely got us going in the second half."
 
Twelve minutes later Neder netted the go-ahead goal, providing a 2-1 lead.
 
CLAIRE NEDER FIRST GOAL

Sophia Chilczuk made it 3-1 in the 80th minute with her team-leading 10th goal of the season. Neder converted a penalty kick with six minutes remaining to conclude the scoring and complete her fourth multi-goal game of the season.
 
These two teams met on April 24 in Bellingham and it was the Vikings who tallied four second-half scores. They trailed 2-0 at halftime before battling back to forge a 4-4 tie. A goal by WWU's Zola Carbone with 16 seconds left to play in regulation forced overtime.
 
There would be no late heroics for the Vikings on Wednesday as they were outshot 10-5 in the second half en route to a 17-8 deficit for the game.
 
Riley Travis played all 90 minutes between the posts for the Falcons and stopped one shot.
 
Western's Natalie Dierickx gave way at halftime to backup goalkeeper Claire Henninger, who was credited with the team's two saves.
 
Scoring Summary
Western found the back of the net on its third shot of the game, at 27:37. Estera Levinte intercepted a pass and dribbled through the left flank. Just as she reached the edge of the box, Levinte lined a pass to the center that SPU defender Marissa Bankey touched twice without managing to gain control of the ball that continued to roll to the goalmouth. Eversaul was there direct a blast high into the center of the goal from six yards out.
 
SPU trailed 1-0 at halftime despite compiling a 7-3 shot advantage, including four attempts that traveled within one foot of a goalpost. Three of those came on breakaway situations with a Falcon facing only Dierickx, who sprinted off her line on each occasion.
 
The frustrated Falcons offense tried two quick shots after intermission, the second off a low cross from the right flank by Chilczuk. Neder lunged at the ball in the goalmouth near the far post, but poked it inches wide.
 
That play would be replicated at 67:16, but with a better result. Neder finished this low pass from Chilczuk with a first-time left-footer at the left post for the go-ahead goal. A long pass from Chloe Gellhaus initiated the scoring situation.
 
Twelve minutes before that, Alexander had knocked in a set-piece serve by Giovanola from the right corner. She used her chest in a congested goalmouth to nudge the ball across the line for the equalizer at 55:59. That was the third goal of the season Alexander, a central defender.
 
Giovanola, an outside left back, delivered a second assist for SPU's third goal. Her long, arching through ball from the defensive half found Chilczuk sprinting toward the right side of the box. The senior forward dribbled past a defender before unleashing a 15-yard strike into the left inside-netting at 79:49.
 
SOPHIA CHILCZUK GOAL

Chilczuk shattered the school's single-season record for goals average at 1.25 with 10 scores in eight games. The standard of 0.81 was established in 2003 by Shannon Lovejoy who tallied 17 goals in 21 games.
 
With 15 years on the coaching staff, including the last six as head coach, Busey has seen his share of standout SPU scorers. He ranks Chilczuk among the best of them.
 
"That puts her in some rare company. There are some really good soccer players that have come through here on the attacking side of the ball that have scored at a pretty good clip. When you start being mentioned with them and even exceeding what some of those players did, it shows how special she is to us.
 
"It almost leaves you speechless in terms of how to describe her. Sophia isn't sneaking up on anybody, she's obviously somebody that other teams know coming in that they have to deal with. Then she just goes out and does it game after game."
 
Chilczuk topped the team this season with 10 goals and eight assists for a 28-point total.
 
Neder capped Wednesday's scoring at 84:03 on a well-struck penalty kick. The free shot from the 12-yard spot was awarded after SPU's Sophie Beadle was fouled in the left side of the box by goalkeeper Henninger.
 
A senior midfielder, Neder completed the season with eight goals to rank second on the team.
 
While SPU had several seniors only one of them is not planning to return in the fall. Defender Kate Veenhuizen was a late substitution and played the final two minutes in her last collegiate game.
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
at (#7) Seattle Pacific 4, Western Washington 1
 
Scoring – 1, WWU, Grace Eversaul (unassisted), 27:37; 2, SPU, Mariah Alexander (Ava Giovanola), 55:39; 3, Claire Neder (Sophia Chilczuk, Chloe Gellhaus), 67:16; 4, SPU, Chilczuk (Giovanola), 79:49; 5, SPU, Neder (penalty kick), 84:03.
 
                       1   2  --  TOTAL
Western Washington     1   0  --    1
Seattle Pacific        0   4  --    4
 
Shots – WWU 17, SPU 8.
Shots on Goal – WWU 2, SPU 6.
Saves – WWU 2 (Natalie Dierickx 0, Claire Henninger 2), SPU 1 (Riley Travis).
Corner Kicks – WWU 3, SPU 7.
Fouls – WWU 8, SPU 12.
Offsides – WWU 1, SPU 2.
 
Records
Western Washington 3-1-2
Seattle Pacific 8-0-1