Women's Soccer Hosts Northwest Nazarene and Travels to Rocky This Week

Game notes in PDF format

BRIEFLY
The MSUB women’s soccer team looks to get back on the winning track this week with a home game and a cross-town road game.  The Yellowjackets look to avenge a 4-3 overtime loss to Northwest Nazarene Thursday at 4 p.m. at Yellowjacket Field and then head across town for the Eighth Annual Rimrock Cup versus Rocky Mountain College Sunday at 12 p.m. at Wendy’s Field.

BETWEEN THE POSTS
The Yellowjackets enter the week with a 6-4-1 record overall and a 3-2 mark in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  MSUB currently is sitting in third place in the league standings behind Western Washington (4-0-1) and Seattle Pacific (4-1).  Northwest Nazarene enters the week with a 3-5-3 record overall and a 1-3 mark in the GNAC.  NNU’s conference win was against MSUB Sept. 19.  Rocky enters the week with a 2-7 record and will play host to Southwestern before hosting the Yellowjackets Sunday.

EIGHTH ANNUAL RIMROCK CUP
Sunday’s meeting with Rocky marks the eighth edition of the Rimrock Cup.  With a 3-2 overtime win by Rocky last season, the Rimrock Cup is all tied between the two teams (5-5-1).  Rocky’s Ali Beckers scored a goal just two minutes into the contest last season, but the Yellowjackets would fight back twice in the second half to tie the game.  In the overtime, Abby Jenkins fired the game-winner from about 30-yards out off a free kick.

SCOUTING MONTANA STATE BILLINGS
The Yellowjackets are led by freshman Jaucelyn Richter who leads the team and the conference with nine goals and 21 points.  Fellow freshman Jennifer Larsen has six goals for 13 points.  Richter leads the team with 41 shots and 25 on goal.  Larsen is second in shots with 34 and second in shots on goal with 22.  Senior Chelsea Libby leads the team with five assists, including three against Minnesota-Crookston Sept. 13.  Kari Foreman is third in goals with three and leads the team with three game-winning goals.  Richter has two game-winners.  Samantha Sandau has two goals on the year with three assists, while three other players have one goal each.

Defensively, the Yellowjacks are led by junior Jordan Fenwick in goal.  She has a 6-4-1 record with one shutout and 48 saves.  Fenwick has played and started all 11 games, logging 1048:29 minutes and carries a 1.63 goals against average.

As a team, the Yellowjackets have scored 23 goals and have 23 assists on the year for 69 points.  They have 159 shots for a .145 shot percentage.  MSUB has 91 shots on goal for a .572 clip.

RECAPPING LAST WEEK
The Yellowjackets returned home after a six-game road trip and hosted Central Washington for Futbol Frenzy.  The game was tied 0-0 at halftime, but three second half goals by CWU proved to be the difference in a 3-0 loss.  MSUB had a number of chances in both halves, but was unable to get anything through.  Both teams shot the heck out of the ball in the second half, combining for 17 shots of a total 19.  CWU goalkeeper Amber Easterbrook made five, second half saves to preserve the shutout to even the season series as both teams won on the other team’s home field.

SCOUTING NORTHWEST NAZARENE
The Crusaders enter the week with a 3-5-3 record overall and a 1-3 mark in league play. NNU has not won (lost three straight) since a 4-3 overtime win over MSUB Sept. 19 in Nampa.  Leading the way for the Crusaders this season is Stacey Beckman who leads the team with four goals and an assist for nine points.  Three other players each have three goals, while four players lead the team with two assists each.  Sarah Staropoli leads the team with 19 shots and 13 shots on goal. 

Between the posts, Tanya Zickefoose leads the way with a 3-5-2 record and one shutout.  She has played in all 11 games with six starts recording 938:43 minutes.  She has 53 saves (second in league) with 21 goals against and a 2.01 goals against average.  Lauren Delameter has seen action in two games and earned one tie.

INSIDE THE SERIES...
The Yellowjackets lead the all-time series 5-4-1 and are 5-1-1 in the past seven  games.  With a 4-3 overtime win in Nampa on Sept. 19, the Crusaders snapped a four-game winning streak by MSUB in the series.  MSUB won both meetings last year and did not allow the Crusaders to score in either match, 4-0 and 3-0, respectively.

LAST MEETING WITH NORTHWEST NAZARENE
The Yellowjackets jumed all over the Crusaders early on as Jaucelyn Richter scored two goals in the first 20 minutes, but NNU came right back as Autumn Yturbe scored two goals late in the half to force a tie at halftime.  NNU took the early lead in the second half with a goal by Marie Smith, but MSUB freshman Jennifer Larsen had the answer a bit later as she tied the game.  With 52 seconds left in the first overtime, McKenzie Bailey scored the game-winner on shot from the left side to the upper corner.  In the game, the Yellowjackets outshot NNU 19-14 and both goalkeepers had eight saves each.

WOMEN’S SOCCER RANKED REGIONALLY
For the first time since the end of the 2006 season, the MSUB women’s soccer team is ranked regionally in the first NCAA Division II West Region Poll.  The Yellowjackets are 10th in the region in the initial poll.  Seattle Pacific is first and Western Washington is seventh. Last week, the Yellowjackets broke into the NSCAA/adidas West Region poll at ninth.

IMPACT FRESHMEN
Freshmen Jennifer Larsen and Jaucelyn Richter lead the team in goals, points, shots and shots on goal.  They both have had outstanding starts to their MSUB careers.  MSUB has nine freshmen in 2009 and a number of them have seen significant minutes.  Through 10 games, 16 of 23 goals, 8 of 23 assists, 91 of 150 shots and 51 of 85 shots have come from freshmen.

SOCCER BUZZ
Last week marked the first time in school history that the Montana State Billings men’s and women’s soccer teams are ranked in the region top 10 together.  The women’s team is ninth this week and the men’s team is sixth in the NSCAA/adidas West Region Poll.

RICHTER SCALE
Montana State Billings freshman, Jaucelyn Richter, leads the league in a number of areas.  She is tops in the league in shots per game (4.1), points (21), points per game (2.10), goals (9) and goals per game (1.00).  

NATIONALLY SPEAKING
The Montana State Billings women’s soccer team currently is ranked 67th nationally in scoring offense at a 2.09 clip.  Individually, Jaucelyn Richter is 28th in points per game (2.1) and 32nd in goals per game (0.9).  Chelsea Libby is 64th in assists per game at a 0.45 clip.

LIBBY SECOND IN ASSISTS
Senior Chelsea Libby is tied for second in the league in assists with five.  Kelly Irving of Western Washington also has five assists.  Kaycie Hutchins of Central Washington leads the way with six.

LIVE ON THE WEB
This season ALL MSUB home women’s soccer games will be FREE on the internet with live video and audio as the voice of the Yellowjackets, Ken Adelblue, will have the call.