United Athletic Conference

 

Grand Canyon's Dani Babb and UT Rio Grande Valley's Macie Blohowiak were selected as the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week for March 22 through March 28, respectively.

 

Babb, a sophomore forward from Centennial, Colo., posted six points in just 71 minutes of action to help the Lopes sweep Chicago State last week. In Thursday's matchup, Babb recorded goals in the 14th and 86th minutes to bookend GCU's scoring while also adding an assist in the 70th minute of a 6-1 victory. Babb then made the most of her 21 minutes of playing time on Saturday as she set up Brenna Alderson for the game-winner for the Lopes.

 

Blohowiak, a freshman from Granbury, Texas, helped the Vaqueros pick up a win against California Baptist last week as she made her first-career start. On Thursday, Blohowiak tallied six saves and allowed zero goals against a Lancer offense that leads the WAC in scoring, averaging 2.50 goals per match. She also smothered a ball in the box in the final seconds to secure the Vaqueros eighth win of the season.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Ari Coronado notched the game-winner for the Lancers in their 1-0 victory over UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday… Chicago State's Gisselle Sahagun tallied her first goal of the season as the Cougars hosted GCU on Thursday… NM State's Hannah Leitner scored two goals last week in her first action since returning from injury… UT Rio Grande Valley's Mari Liis Lillemae posted her first career goal to help the Vaqueros to a 1-0 win over CBU on Thursday… Utah Valley's Heather Stainbrook recorded a brace and an assist to help the Wolverines defeat preseason favorite Seattle U on Saturday.

 

Other defensive nominees: California Baptist's Romy Salvador collected eight saves and gave up only one goal in 180 minutes against the Lancers last week… Grand Canyon's Jordan Ferguson allowed only one goal in two games against Chicago State while earning her second shutout of the season… NM State's Dmitri Fong notched her first shutout of the year and added three saves in the Aggies' 1-0 win over Dixie State… Utah Valley's Jenna Shepherd was outstanding on both ends of the field, scoring three goals of her own while also anchoring a backline that held Seattle U to just three goals in two matches.

 

Just two weeks — and three conference matches — remain in the regular season, with all teams scheduled for two-game series this weekend before playing single contests on the final week of the campaign next week. California Baptist, which plays at Grand Canyon this weekend, owns a two-point lead in the standings (8-2-1 record), while Utah Valley and Seattle U sit in a tie for second with 23 points at 7-2-2 in WAC contests. UVU picked up four points against the Redhawks last weekend and will visit Chicago State this week, while Seattle U hosts NM State for a pair.

 

Among the four conference series played last week, there was just one weekend sweep, and that belonged to Grand Canyon over host Chicago State. The Lopes outscored the Cougars, 10-1, in posting two victories in the Windy City... Hosts Utah Valley and NM State earned four points with one win and one tie in their series against Seattle U and Dixie State, respectively. Both of those weekend sets featured 2-2 draws in their Thursday match-ups before the Wolverines (4-1) and Aggies (1-0) claimed Saturday wins... California Baptist and UT Rio Grande Valley traded 1-0 wins at Edinburg, with the Vaqueros winning Thursday's match-up before the Lancers bounced back on Saturday.

 

California Baptist maintained its WAC lead in goals following a split last weekend. The Lancers have league-best totals of 35 goals and 36 assists, just ahead of Seattle U (31) in goals and more than 10 assists ahead of the Redhawks and Grand Canyon (25 assists each). CBU is also the conference leader in shots (274)... California Baptist also leads the WAC in most goalkeeping categories, with top numbers in fewest goals allowed (8), goals-against average (0.55), and shutouts (6)... UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley match the Lancers with a conference-best six shutouts... Chicago State leads the conference and ranks tenth nationally in saves.

 

Individually, national goal-scoring leader Sydney Carr of Seattle U remains atop the WAC goals and points charts again this week. Carr has 15 goals and 32 points in 14 matches, also ranking second in the conference with three game-winning goals... Dixie State's Whitley Griffiths continues to list second in goals (9) and points (19) with two weeks left in the regular season... California Baptist's Romy Salvador leads three conference goalkeepers with sub-1.00 goals-against averages. Salvador (0.52) is also second in save percentage at .825, with Maile Lunardi of UT Rio Grande Valley leading the conference at .837. Lunardi also ranks third in the WAC with a 0.92 GAA... Chicago State's Stella Chiara Chiaradia leads both the conference and NCAA Division I in saves per game.

 

 

WAC members finished 7-15-4 in non-conference matches, securing 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.