BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Montana State Billings women's soccer team enjoyed a successful first half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference season, going 5-2-0. This week, MSUB begins the second half and seeks it's first-ever conference title with games on Thursday and Saturday against Central Washington and Seattle Pacific, respectively.
The Yellowjackets are 8-2-1 overall as they enter the weekend, coming off a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory at Northwest Nazarene last Saturday. The Jackets now look to carry that momentum into the crucial matchups with the Wildcats and Falcons.
MSUB currently sits just one point behind conference leaders Western Washington and Seattle Pacific in the standings. The Jackets have a shooting percentage of .162 as a team on the year and have a .675 shots-on-goal percentage. The team is averaging 1.73 goals per match and has 19 on the season.
Senior Kari Foreman leads the way in individual statistics with 10 points on the year after four goals and two assists. Foreman ranks ninth in the conference for points with seven, scoring three goals and an assist during the conference season.
Freshman Heidi Greenback came up with an assist on the game-winning goal against Northwest Nazarene for her ninth point of the season, scoring a trio of goals and assists this year. Jennifer Larsen continues her great play out of the backline, scoring four goals this season.
Sophomore and last season's GNAC Freshman of the Year, Jaucelyn Richter, picked up her seventh point of the season after scoring the game-winner at NNU last Saturday. It was Richter's third goal of the season. She also ranks fourth in the conference for shots (23) and fifth for shots per game (3.29).
The Yellowjacket defense has stepped up tremendously this season under the leadership of Samantha Boehm and Lauren Anderson, a pair of seniors. The back line has held opponents to a .101 shot percentage and a .444 shots-on-goal percentage. The Jackets have allowed just 10 goals and have five shutouts on the year.
Entering Thursday's showdown, Central Washington comes in with a 3-7-1 record overall and are 3-4-0 in the GNAC. The Wildcats are being led by Serena Tomaso who has 11 points with four goals and three assists. Kaycie Hutchins is also in double figures for points with 10, scoring three goals and four assists.
The Wildcats are coming off of back-to-back losses to Western Washington (0-3) and Seattle Pacific (1-5) snapping a three game winning streak.
In the first meeting between the Wildcats and the Yellowjackets, CWU jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the first half, but second half goals by Larsen and Foreman gave the Jackets a 2-1 victory.
Looking at Seattle Pacific, the Falcons enter Saturday's conference tilt as the 14th nationally ranked team in the nation according to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll. The Falcons are also second in the west region with a 8-1-2 overall record and 5-1-1 conference record.
The Falcons are led by Brandi Hamre who has a team-high 13 points with four goals and five assists. Kellie Zakrzewski has a team-high five goals with one assist for 11 points.
In the first meeting in Seattle, the Falcons had two early goals and put the third in at the 88th minute to win 3-0. Three different players scored in the match for SPU, but since then, have gone on to have a 45 game home unbeaten streak snapped by Western Washington and earned a draw with Simon Fraser, teams MSUB have earned victories over this season.
The Jackets and Wildcats kickoff Thursdays match at 4 p.m. at Yellowjacket Field, while Saturday's kickoff with the Falcons is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday's match is also the Make-A-Wish game for the women's soccer program. Stars can be bought for a dollar and for every five dollars purchased, a fan name will be entered into a drawing for an I-Pod Shuffle. 50 percent of the gate proceeds will go to help the charity and the first 40 fans through the gate will receive a FREE t-shirt.
