United Athletic Conference

 

Seattle U's Sydney Carr and California Baptist's Romy Salvador were selected as the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week for March 15 through March 21, respectively.

 

Carr, a redshirt junior from Orange, Calif., notched back-to-back hat tricks as she carried the Redhawks to a series sweep of Chicago State last week. Thursday, Carr posted an incredible 10 points, including four goals and a pair of assists. She followed that performance with three more goals on Saturday as she picked up her third hat trick of the season. With her seven goals last week, Carr moved into a tie for the national lead in goals with 13 goals on the season.

 

Salvador, a senior from Lyon, France, led the Lancers to a pair of wins over NM State last week as she allowed only two goals in 180 minutes of play. Salvador finished the week with a .714 save percentage while denying five Aggie shots last week. On the season, Salvador now leads the WAC in both wins (9) and goals-against average (0.56).

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Rola Badawiya tallied a goal in both of the Lancers' wins over NM State last week… Chicago State's Barbara Castellanos scored the Cougars' lone goal during their series with Seattle U… Dixie State's Jill Bennett scored one of the Trailblazers' two goals in their meeting with Utah Valley… Grand Canyon's Marleen Schimmer led the Lopes to a 3-0 win over UTRGV behind an assist and a goal of her own… UT Rio Grande Valley's Emily Zapata finished with a goal and an assist in the Vaqueros' 2-1 victory over Grand Canyon… Utah Valley's London Miller recorded a brace, including the game-winner in a 3-2 win over Dixie State.

 

Other defensive nominees: Grand Canyon's Jordan Ferguson recorded her first career shutout as she helped the Lopes take down UTRGV on Saturday… Seattle U's Michelle Adam led the Redhawks on the defensive end as Chicago State scored only one goal in a pair of matchups… Utah Valley's Sydney Bushman anchored the backline of the Wolverines in a win over Dixie State.

 

With three weeks and five scheduled conference matches left for each team, the race for the top spot in the WAC standings is paring down to a four-team affair. Seattle U and California Baptist share the top spot in the standings with identical 7-1-1 records (22 points), while Utah Valley is third with a 6-2-1 record (19 points). UT Rio Grande Valley, meanwhile, sits in fourth place at 4-4-1, and the Vaqueros host California Baptist for a pair of games this weekend. Seattle U visits Utah Valley this week and travels to CBU to finish its regular season on April 9.

 

The home team won five of seven conference matches — and six of eight matches overall — in week seven. The lone visiting teams to be victorious last week were UT Rio Grande Valley in its Thursday match at Grand Canyon and Utah Valley in its only WAC match of the week on Saturday at Dixie State. The Wolverines lost the only non-league match of the week on the road... For the season, it's been almost a 50-50 split between home teams and visitors in the win column for WAC play, as host squads own a 17-15-2 record in conference games.

 

Following a 14-goal weekend in which it more than doubled its season total for goals, Seattle U has moved just behind California Baptist for the WAC lead in goals. The Redhawks now have 26 tallies on the year, one behind the Lancers' 27... CBU holds onto its lead in shots (209), points (80), assists (26), goals per game (2.45), assists per game (2.36), and the Lancers have also allowed the fewest goals (seven) and boast the best goals-against average (0.61) in the circuit... Seattle U and UT Rio Grande Valley have surrendered nine goals each, while Utah Valley (11 goals, 12 games) is also allowing fewer than one goal per game.

 

Individually, Seattle U's Sydney Carr anchored her team's scoring barrage last week, also more than doubling her season point total in just two games. Carr has league-high totals of 13 goals and 28 points, owning an advantage of five goals and 11 points over the second-highest totals in those categories... Dixie State's Whitley Griffiths remains second behind Carr with 17 points and eight goals, and seven conference players have surpassed the 10-point mark to this point in the season... Leahi Manthei of Seattle U and Taylor Summit of California Baptist share the assist lead with four helpers apiece, and five others have three assists each to tie for third... California Baptist goalkeeper Romy Salvador, this week's TicketSmarter Defensive Player of the Week (see page 2), now leads the conference with a 0.61 goals-against average and ranks third with a .781 save percentage. Maile Lunardi of UT Rio Grande Valley maintains the WAC lead in save percentage at .866.

 

With Utah Valley's 4-1 loss at nationally-ranked Brigham Young last Wednesday, the non-conference portion of the Western Athletic Conference schedule came to a close. WAC members finished 7-15-4 in non-conference matches, claiming two wins each against Conference USA, the Southland Conference, and non-Division I foes. The other non-league win came versus the West Coast Conference.

 

Seattle U is the preseason favorite to win the 2020-21 Western Athletic Conference women's soccer title in a vote of the league's eight head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.

 

The Redhawks received five of eight first-place votes for 46 total points to earn the preseason nod by just two points over Utah Valley, who collected the remaining three first-place votes and 44 points. California Baptist was picked third with 37 points, followed by Grand Canyon in fourth with 31 points. UT Rio Grande Valley is predicted fifth with 25 points, followed by NM State in sixth, Dixie State in seventh and Chicago State in eighth.

 

Utah Valley's Amber Tripp and Seattle U's Michelle Adam were selected as the WAC Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's eight head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.

 

Tripp is joined on the Preseason All-WAC team by teammates Jenna Shepard, Katie Haskins and Isabel Jones-Dawe. Adam was one of two Redhawks honored as teammate Leahi Manthei was also recognized. Grand Canyon also had two players honored as Lindsey Prokop and Marleen Schmimmer represented the Lopes. Also earning honors were California Baptist's Erin Gallagher, Chicago State's Sara Quevedo and UT Rio Grande Valley's Emily Zapata.

 

Dixie State head coach Molly Rouse will lead the Trailblazers into their Division I era after serving two seasons at an assistant at Minnesota. Also donning a new color, but not new to the WAC, is Grand Canyon head coach Chris Cissell, who came to GCU after nine seasons at Kansas City, where he claimed 102 victories, three WAC regular-season titles and two WAC Coach of the Year honors.

 

The 2020-21 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament will feature the six eligible teams on April 13, 17, and 19 at GCU Stadium in Phoenix. The top two teams in the regular-season standings will receive byes straight to the semifinals. Six of the eight soccer-playing members of the WAC will compete in the tournament, as California Baptist and Dixie State are not yet eligible to compete in the championship.

 

As Tarleton continues its growth to NCAA Division I, the athletics department will be adding women's soccer with the expectation to begin play in the fall of 2022. The nationwide search for a head coach is ongoing and the finalist will be named this spring, allowing for a full year of recruitment before beginning the inaugural soccer season.

 

On Jan. 14, the WAC announced the addition of five new schools in the near future. Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin were all offered and accepted membership invitations and will join the WAC on July 1, 2021. Southern Utah also received and accepted a membership invitation, and will join the league on July 1, 2022. With the additions, the WAC will have six schools in Texas, more than any other conference in the country, and three schools in Utah, also a national best.