ARCATA – After claiming a win in its season-opener, Humboldt State women's soccer team will face three difficult games in five days when they travel to play defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Seattle Pacific University and No. 12 Western Washington before finishing the trip at Saint Martin's University. The three-match road trip will be the second longest of the year for the Jacks.
Lumberjack Links
2009 Schedule
2009 Roster
2009 Statistics
Head-to-Head
The Jacks are just 1-9-1 all-time against the Seattle Pacific Falcons. The most recent meeting was a 4-1 Seattle Pacific home win in 2007. HSU's only victory in the series came back in 2002, when both teams were members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). The Jacks shut out the Falcons, 3-0, but have not beaten Seattle Pacific in the last eight meetings. … The Western Washington Vikings hold a 7-9-1 lead in the series with Humboldt State. The Jacks took the last meeting, 2-0, in 2005. These two teams have split a home-and-home series in five of eight seasons.…Humboldt State hold a 2-0-0 record all-time against the Saint Martin's Saints, and took the last match, 3-1, last year in Lacey, Wash.
Johnson's Comments
“The game against Western Oregon showed us what we were doing well, struggling with and what we needed to work on. We still have a lot to work on, but I think we are better prepared for SPU and WWU than I thought we would be if you had asked me two weeks ago. That being said, SPU is a very good side regardless of how many athletes they lost from last season. They and Western Washington may not have gotten off to the type of start they would have liked but they are both good teams and will really give us an idea of where we are as a team.” … “We are going to face three very good teams in five days. We are going to execute our game plan and see what the result will be. Regardless of our record after this trip, if we play well, compete for 90 minutes and are in the matches, I will be happy.”
Lumberjack Notes
Sophomore Arielle Kern scored both the equalizer and game-winning goal in HSU's season-opening win. … The goals were the first two of Kern's collegiate career. … Senior co-captain Katie Forba scored the Jacks' third goal, her first since 2006. ... Keeper Kelly Sandberg earned her first victory of the season and her first shutout. … The victory over WOU was the first for new head coach Christian Johnson and the 100th of his career as a women's collegiate head coach … Johnson is the second women's soccer coach to win in an HSU debut. Kim Sutton's 1995 side defeated Pacific Univ., 3-2 in her's and the program's first game, and went on to win its first six matches.
Record Watch
Kim Carroll, in just two seasons, slots into 12th place on the career goals list with 10. She is two goals from joining a group of four athletes in a tie for 7th place with 12 goals. … Ali Lawrence is also knocking on the door of the career top-10 lists of goals. She has scored nine, and her eight assists are just one shy of four athletes tied for 8th place. … Entering the 2009 season, Sandberg's career GAA, 1.16, ranks 3rd on the career list and her six shutouts last season were good for a 5th place tie on the school's single-season list. … With Sandberg's shutout of WOU she now has eight for her career and is two shy of 3rd place on the school's career list.
Opponents' Notes
Last week Seattle Pacific (2-0-0) hosted two California Collegiate Athletic Association sides. On the Thursday the Falcons defeated CSU Monterey Bay, 1-0, and then scored in the 87th minute to down San Francisco State, 1-0 on Saturday. ... SPU won the 2008 Division II national championship and has appeared in the past six NCAA tournaments. The Falcons had a 22-1-2 overall record last season and finished 10-1-1 in the GNAC behind conference champs Western Washington. … SPU returns six starters from last year's squad and is led by junior Amanda Johnson with 11 goals, and Jocelyn Charette who had 15 assists and nine goals. In net, Maddie Dickinson sported a gaudy 0.34 GAA and had 10 shutouts … Seattle Pacific is led by seventh-year head coach Chuck Sekyra who has a 118-11-10 record. … The Falcons and Jacks had 10 common opponents in 2008. Seattle Pacific went 12-1 in those matches while HSU had a 4-7-2 record. … On Thursday the No. 12 Vikings (0-1-1) hosted Chico State and lost 3-1, then let a 3-2 lead go in the 86th minute to settle for a 3-3 tie against CSU Monterey Bay on Saturday … WWU went 17-3-2 last year and reached the Far West region final of the NCAA Tournament. … The Vikings won the GNAC with a 10-0-2 mark and were the only team to defeat eventual national champion Seattle Pacific . … The Vikings return nine seniors and eight starters from last year's team. … WWU is led by Claire Morgan, a forward who had eight goals and seven assists, Kelly Irving, who had six goals and seven assists from her midfield position, and Molly Shannon, a forward who scored eight goals. … Directing the Vikings is head coach Travis Connell, who enters his seventh season with a 71-42-8 record. …Saint Martin's (1-1-0) dropped its home-opener, 3-2, to San Francisco State on last Thursday with Jill Webb scoring both goals … On Saturday SMU downed CSU East Bay, 1-0 on a goal in the 63rd minute by Kelcy Ware. … Saint Martin's is coming off a 6-11-2 record last year … The Saints were 4-6-2 in the GNAC and finished in fifth place.
