Lady Jackets Hit the Road for Showdowns with Top Teams (Sept. 21, 2004)
BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings
women’s soccer team, which moved up to No. 9 in the NSCAA Far West
Region poll on Tuesday, will face two of the nation’s top teams
this week in Seattle. The Yellowjackets play at Seattle Pacific
on Wednesday at 7:00 and at Seattle University on Saturday at
2:00. Both teams are tied atop the Far West Region poll this
week. SPU is ranked fourth nationally, and Seattle is seventh.
The two teams played to a 1-1 draw last week.
The Yellowjackets, Falcons and Redhawks are
the only remaining unbeaten teams in the region. MSU Billings
currently has a school-record seven game unbeaten streak at
6-0-1. They scored 12 goals in a pair of wins last week, downing
Rocky Mountain 7-2 on Tuesday and Central Washington 5-1 on
Saturday. The win over Central Washington was the first in the
program’s history over an NCAA school from Washington.
With last week’s scoring barrage,
MSU Billings is now averaging 3.23 goals per game. Seven
different players scored in the win over Rocky and five different
players scored against Central Washington. So far this season, 10
Yellowjackets have scored at least one goal, and eight have at
least one assist.
Margot
Merrill-Johnson (Sr., MF, Salt Lake City) is the leading goal
scorer with five goals. She also has two assists for a team-high
10 points. Ally
Taylor (So., MF, Ojai, CA) and Alyssa Wolfer (So., F, Longmont, CO) have each scored four
goals and three assists for 11 points.
Freshmen Abbey
Bennett (MF, Livingston, MT) and Brittney Sandau (MF, Billings, MT) have made significant
contributions offensively. Bennet has three goals for six points,
and Sandau has two goals and three assists for seven points.
Classmate Amy
Stephens (MF, Colorado Springs, CO) has scored a goal with two
assists for four points.
Megan
Plank (So., GK, Phoenix, AZ) has still played every minute in
goal for the Jackets this year, posting at 0.94 goals against
average in 669 minutes. She has allowed just seven goals while
making 39 saves.
Seattle Pacific is led by Michelle Sanders,
who has four goals and two assists for 10 points. She ranks third
in the GNAC for points per game. Shannon Lovejoy has three goals
and three assists. Goalkeeper Jennifer Hull has the GNAC’s best
goals against average at 0.42 after allowing only three goals in
seven games.
Seattle is led by Cassy Smith who has found
the net four times. She also has two assists for 10 points in
nine games. Katy Mak has three goals and an assist. Much like
SPU, Seattle has relied on defense to win games. Goalkeeper Kelly
Stewart leads the conference in save percentage at .897 and has
allowed just 0.45 goals per game.
NSCAA Far West Region Poll
1. Seattle Pacific (6-0-1); 1. Seattle
(6-0-2); 3. Sonoma State (4-2-0); 4. Cal State-Stanislaus (5-1-0);
5. Cal State San Bernardino (4-2-0); 6. UC-San Diego (5-1-0); 7.
Humboldt State (6-2-0); 8. Chico State (3-2-1); 9. Montana
State-Billings (6-0-1); 10. Cal State-Dominguez Hills (5-3-0). |
