SEATTLE – This week in Seattle Pacific University Athletics, cross country competes at NCAA West Regionals, men's and women's soccer wrap up the regular season on the road, and women's volleyball hosts a match on Saturday.

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Nov. 8 – 2:00 p.m.
vs. Montana State University Billings – watch – live stats - tickets

FROM THE COACH
"We are really excited for a stretch of two weeks at home," head coach Jason Rhine said. "We have specific goals that we want to reach on the court in terms of our execution and development, and this week will be a great chance to make progress on those in practice and in the match on Saturday.  We are hoping that after an extra day off this week, our team will be energized to attack the challenges this week will present."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The Falcons fell 3-0 to Central Washington last Thursday night before beating Northwest Nazarene 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.
• Megan Omlid had a game-high 19 kills with 11 digs for a double-double against NNU.
  • She has recorded 14 double-doubles this season for the Falcons.
• Amaya Evans and Audra Rose had nine kills each for the Falcons last Saturday.
• Sophia Chambers led the Falcons with 26 assists, while Avery Veenendall added 18 assists.
• Veenendall had a game-high four service aces against the Nighthawks.
  • Veenendall set a new career-high in aces with four against the Nighthawks.
• Madeline Eggerth was one dig away from tying her career-high in digs of 18 against NNU, set on Sept. 11 against Westminster.

CROSS COUNTRY
Nov. 8 – 10:00 a.m.
at NCAA West Regionals – live results

FROM THE COACH
"Championship season is always fun, especially when you have something to run for," assistant coach Eric Hansen said. "We got a good preview of the regional course earlier this season when we went down to race at Western Oregon, so our team knows the course pretty well. We raced well at GNAC's, but everyone gets a clean slate for regionals. We know nobody is going to make it easy on us, but we don't need it to be easy. We just need to find one more level of intensity this weekend, and we have a chance to have our highest finish on both sides that this program has in a while."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The SPU women finished second at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships with 92 points.
  • SPU's women's team's finish was the best team finish since taking third in 2019.
  • The last time the Falcons finished second at the GNAC Championships was in 2009.
• Maya Ewing claimed her first GNAC Championship with a time of 21:04.7.
  • Ewing is the first GNAC Champion from SPU since Jessica Pixler in 2009.
• Anna Prussian career-best 9th-place finish, earning All-GNAC Honors in the process.
• The SPU men's team finished sixth with 151 points.
  • The SPU men had their highest finish since fifth in 2019.
• Avery Erickson 14th in 24:52.2. He was 26th at 4K, moved up to 15th at 6.6K.
  • Erickson ran his first sub-25-minute race since a 25:03.9 at last year's PacWest Championships.
    • He was the highest-placing Falcon since Elius Graf took 8th in 2019.

WOMEN'S SOCCER
Nov. 6 – 1:00 p.m. PST
at MSU Billings – watch – live stats

Nov. 8 – 11:15 a.m.
at Saint Martin's – watch – live stats

FROM THE COACH
"We will look to enjoy this week together, our last of the regular season," head coach Arby Busey said. "We have two more opportunities together to finish things out and are excited about both. Going on the road is always a challenge, especially late in the season as the weather changes. But we know what is on the line for us with these last two chances, and we will look to build off our positive second half in Saturday's game to lead us into this week's preparation."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The Falcons fell 2-0 to 12th-ranked Western Washington last Thursday before earning a gutsy 2-2 draw with 25th-ranked Simon Fraser last Saturday.
• Last Saturday, SPU tied the match in the 52nd minute when Grace Gouran drilled a shot into the upper left corner of the net.
  • Gouran's goal was her second of the season for the Falcons.    
  • Gouran joined Ashlyn Valdovinos (3), Taylor Krueger (4), and Wallace (8) as
• The Falcons stayed the course and tied the match in the 88th minute, when Kayla Wallace hammered a shot into the lower right corner to tie the game 2-2.
  • Wallace scored her team-leading eighth goal of the season on Saturday.
• The Falcons were relentless offensively, sending in 18 shots compared to the Red Leafs' seven shots.
• The top four teams in the GNAC women's soccer standings qualify for the GNAC Championships, Nov. 13-15 at Simon Fraser.
• The Falcons are in fourth place with a 5-3-4 conference record and 19 points.
  • Western Washington, Simon Fraser, and Western Oregon have all clinched a berth into the GNAC Championships.   
  • Northwest Nazarene trails the Falcons by five points for the final spot in the GNAC Championships.  

MEN'S SOCCER
Nov. 8 – 12:00 p.m. PST
at Northwest Nazarene – watch – live stats

FROM THE COACH
"The conference tournament participants and regular season champion all get decided this week, so it's obviously a big week in our conference," head coach Kevin Sakuda said. "Despite all that, our focus is only on us and controlling the things that we can control. We have an extremely difficult opponent in NNU on Saturday, and we know that playing our best on Saturday requires us to continue to stack great sessions this week."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The Falcons fell 2-0 to Western Oregon last Thursday night before earning a 2-1 senior day victory over Saint Martin's last Saturday night.
• Against the Saints, the Falcons broke through in the 35th minute of the match when Connor Tollan launched a corner kick into the box, where Jackson Goode got a head to it to score from six yards out.
  • Goode scored his third goal of the season and fifth goal of his career at SPU.
  • He's set a new career best in goals in a season with three in 2025.
  • Tollan's assist was his second of the season and 17th of his career with the Falcons.
• The Falcons added to their lead in the 76th minute when Cristian Chel Lara put one in the lower left corner off assists from Nick Ramoso and Goode.
  • Chel Lara scored his fourth goal of the season on Saturday.    
  • Ramoso recorded his first career assist for the Falcons on his senior day.
• Saturday's win secured the Falcons' first 10-win season since 2021, when they went 12-4-2 with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
• It's the 43rd time in program history that the Falcons have won 10 or more games in a single season.
• The Falcons are fighting for a spot in the inaugural GNAC Men's Soccer Championships on March 13-15.
  • The top three teams in the standings advance to the first-of-its-kind tournament.
• SPU leads the GNAC standings with a 5-2-2 conference record and 17 points.
  • Western Washington is in second place with 16 points, Western Oregon is third with 14 points, Simon Fraser is fourth with 13 points, and Northwest Nazarene is in fifth with 11 points.

SPU SOCIAL

• X - @SPUSports
• Instagram - @SPUSports
• Facebook - /SPUSports