UW Wraps Up Homestand Sunday Against CSUN

SEATTLE – Winners of back-to-back home matches, Washington remains at the comfy confines of Husky Soccer Stadium on Sunday, taking on CSUN to wrap up its non-conference home slate. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. PT.
 

The Huskies will be hosting a Youth Sporting Goods Drive during the match. In partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, sporting goods collected will be re-distributed to those in need of new sports gear this fall as the academic year kicks off.

The match will air live on Pac-12 Washington. Links to live coverage can be found above and on the schedule page at GoHuskies.com.

 

SCOUTING CSUN

The Matadors are in their third season under the direction of head coach Christine Johnson, who was elevated to her current role after one season as an assistant coach. Prior to that, Johnson was head coach at NCAA Division III Manchester College for five seasons.

 

CSUN enters Sunday’s matchup looking for its first win at 0-4-1, dropping three straight matches, including a 3-0 defeat at SeattleU on Thursday.

 

While the Matadors are still seeking their first goal of 2023, Paige Califf, Ashley Cruz and Izabel Reyes pace the CSUN offense with five shots apiece.

In goal, sophomore Hayden Mauldin has played the entirety of all five matches. She owns a 1.40 GAA with a .767 save percentage on 23 stops.

SERIES HISTORY

Washington has faced CSUN just once previously, a 3-1 Husky win as part of the Nike Portland Invitational in Portland in 2015.

LAST MEETING (9/12/15)

PORTLAND, Ore. – UW women’s soccer won its fifth straight match, beating Cal State Northridge 3-1 in the Huskies’ first game at the Nike Portland Invitational behind two goals from Shannon Simon and one from Amanda Perez.

 

Perez got the scoring started in the 28th minute with a beautiful sliding finish off a cross from freshman Kelcie Hedge, her first career assist. Hedge was free down the left side and played a ball that crossed the face of the goal, where Perez slid and finished with a shot into the ceiling of the goal. The 1-0 score stood as the first half ended.

 

The Huskies dominated the run of play in the first frame, outshooting the Matadors seven shots to two. But the Matadors came out firing to start the second half and responded with a game-tying goal in the 59th minute by Lyndsay Preston, her first of the year. Cynthia Sanchez was credited with the assist as she found herself alone down the right side and into the box. As the Huskies converged, she played a ball across the face of the goal that Preston tapped in.

 

With play favoring the Matadors early in the second half, the Huskies started dominating possession and retook the lead in the 66th minute. Simon got the ball near the top of the box, and touched into space before shooting and scoring her second goal of the year and her career to put the Huskies back up, 2-1.

 

Almost immediately, CSUN responded with a strong attack that led to a shot in front of the goal that senior goalkeeper Megan Kufeld deflected just wide to preserve the one-goal lead, easily Kufeld’s biggest moment of the day.

 

Looking to put the game away, the Huskies were on the attack and got another scoring opportunity when sophomore forward Kimberly Keever was dribbling in the box and a CSUN defender stepped in front of her and took her down, earning a penalty kick for UW. Simon stepped up and calmly buried the penalty kick into the left corner of the net past the right-diving CSUN keeper to extend the lead to 3-1, which would stand for the final score.

 

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK

Trailing 1-0 at halftime before scoring a pair of second half goals, Thursday’s victory over Yale was just the second over the last three seasons in which Washington overcame a halftime deficit.

 

IT FEELS LIKE THE VERY FIRST TIME

Washington has had seven first time goal scorers this season as Radisson Banks, Jadyn Holdenried, Chloe Seelhoff, Lucy Newlin, Anna Menti, Ioanna Papatheodorou and Kalea Eichenberger have all found the back of the net for the first time in a Husky kit.

 

HEATING UP

Tatum Thomason and Ioanna Papatheodorou have scored in back-to-back matches. For Thomason, they were her second and third collegiate goals after scoring once as a rookie. Meanwhile, Papatheodorou scored in back-to-back matches three times during her two seasons at UMass Lowell.

YOUNG GUNS

Washington has started at least three true freshmen in every match this season, including a pair of starting XIs that featured five rookies.

MONTLAKE MAGIC

Over the past two seasons, Washington has created a tough environment to play against on its home turf. Since the start of the 2022 season, the Dawgs own a 9-2-2 record at Husky Soccer Stadium.

MISSED YA, MIA

Coming on in the 59th minute against San Diego, sophomore goalkeeper Mia Hamant made her Husky debut between the posts after missing nearly two full years with an ACL injury. The four-time all-league performer in high school faced one shot in the match, making the save.

AYE PAPI!

Washington junior Ioanna Papatheodorou has been ranked at No. 92 in TopDrawerSoccer’s annual preseason player rankings. It is the first time that the Greek international has been ranked by the service. It is the fourth-straight season that the Huskies have had a player ranked in the top-100 in the preseason rankings.

ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS

Washington had two representatives at the 2022 rendition of the prestigious High School All-American game as true freshmen Maya Loudd and Samiah Shell were both selected to the West Team.

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB

Among Washington’s 15 newcomers for the 2023 season is sophomore Avery Nguyen, who was offered a roster spot during preseason training after a trial. A native of the Kansas City metro area and a former standout for Olathe Northwest High School and Sporting Blue Valley, Nguyen led the UW club team in scoring as a college freshman in 2022.

FRESH FACES

With 10 of 11 primary starters gone from the 2022 roster, Washington is relying on a bevy of newcomers and returners who played in a reserve role a season ago to replace the production lost.

 

Gone from the 2022 roster are 27-of-37 goals (73.0%), 31-of-38 assists (81.6%), 85-of-112 points (75.9%), 252-of-312 shots (80.8%) and 43-of-46 saves (93.5%).

 

Of the 28 players on the Huskies’ roster, just seven are upperclassmen. U Dub boasts 11 freshmen and 10 sophomores on its squad list. Outside of the 17 matches started by Kalea Eichenberger at Cal State Bakersfield in 2022, those 21 underclassmen have recorded just 27 collegiate starts collectively.

NEW SCHOOL, WHO DIS?

Washington added three transfers to its roster for the 2023 season in forwards Kalea Eichenberger and Ioanna Papatheodorou and goalkeeper Megan Nail.

Eichenberger spent her freshman season at Cal State Bakersfield, earning All-Big West Freshman Team honors. The California native appeared in 20 matches for the Roadrunners, starting the final 17 of the 2022 season. She bagged a team-high four goals, finishing the season with 10 points to pace the UCSB. She was named Big West Player of the Week after securing a brace against Cal Poly.

Papatheodorou joined Washington in the spring after starring for two seasons at UMass Lowell, earning back-to-back First Team All-America East nods. A Greece international, Papatheodorou was named the 2021 America East Striker of the Year after leading UMass Lowell with 10 goals. She followed up in 2022 with another 10-goal campaign, ranking second on the America East.

 

Nail is a graduate transfer from San Francisco, where she played for four seasons for the Dons, securing the starting role between the posts in 2022. Making the USF Starting XI 14 times on the year, she garnered a 1.23 goals against average. The veteran shot stopper tallied 64 saves for a .790 save percentage, logging five clean sheets.

COWART MAKES HISTORY

This summer, former Husky Jessika Cowart became the sixth former Dawg to make a World Cup roster, joining Hope Solo, Tina Frimpong, Veronica Perez, Mireya Grey and Dominique Bond-Flasza. Representing her mother’s home nation, Cowart suited up for the Philippines National Team after helping the Philippines lift the 2022 AFF Cup. One of the great storylines of the tournament, Cowart started all three matches of the group stage as the Philippines made its first-ever World Cup appearance.

FOR DAWGS AND COUNTRY

This summer, two Huskies represented their home country and donned their nation’s badge as part of their respective national teams. Ioanna Papatheodorou was called into the Greece National Team in July for a pair of friendlies against Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Budapest, Hungary.

 

Meanwhile, Husky freshman Enora Matté made the squad list for Belgium’s Under-19 team for the 2023 UEFA U19 Championship, receiving one cap during the group stage.

 

Another freshman on the Dawg’s roster, Daniella Alali was called into the Nigeria U17 Women’s National Team Camp ahead of the 2022 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, but did not attend the camp due to injury.

 

PROS MADE HERE

Over the past two seasons, Washington has developed 11 different players who have gone on to play at the professional ranks. Following the 2021 campaign, Olivia Van der Jagt was selected in the 3rd round of the NWSL Draft by OL Reign, while Ameera Hussen signed with Icelandic club IBV. Since finishing her Husky career, Jessika Cowart has gone on to ink deals with Çaykur Rizespor (Turkey), Spartak Subotica (Serbia) and IFK Kalmar (Sweden).

Eight former Huskies from the 2022 roster are now playing at the professional level. Shae Holmes was drafted in the second round of the NWSL Draft by OL Reign, followed in the fourth round by Summer Yates, who was selected by the Orlando Pride. Olivia Sekany and McKenzie Weinert have also signed NWSL contracts with Racing Louisville and OL Reign, respectively.

Overseas, Vanessa Millsaps signed with Liga MX club Pachuca. Cori Sullivan also signed a Liga MX deal with Cruz Azul and has since signed with Glasgow City in Scotland. Evelina Pettersson returned to her native Sweden to play for Trelleborgs FF, while Kala McDaniel signed with Racing Power FC in Portugal.

RAPHA’S RETURN

A former standout player and coach for Washington’s men’s soccer team, Raphael Cox returned to Montlake ahead of the 2023 as an assistant coach following one season as a men’s team assistant at San Diego State.

Cox spent three seasons on Jamie Clark’s staff at Washington as volunteer assistant coach from 2019-21. As a player, Cox a two-time All-Pac-12 selection at UW where he played from 2006-2008. After graduating, Cox was selected in the fourth round of the MLS SuperDraft by Real Salt Lake, where he was part of the MLS Cup Champion squad in 2009.

B1G THINGS COMING

The 2023 season will be Washington’s last in the Pac-12 Conference, with the university announcing in August that it has accepted an invitation to the Big Ten Conference, beginning play in the conference in Fall 2024.

UW was one of the four founding members of what started in December of 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, which eventually grew to become the Pac-12.

 

HUSKIES PICKED SEVENTH IN PAC-12 PRESEASON POLL

The Pac-12 announced the 2023 Preseason Coaches’ Poll prior to the season, with Washington predicted to match its 2022 finish and place seventh in the league table as voted on by the conference’s 12 head coaches. The Huskies received the same number of votes as both Arizona State and Colorado.

 

2022 PAC-12 PRESEASON COACHES’ POLL

Team              

1. UCLA (9)

2. Stanford (3)

3. USC 

4. Cal

5. Washington State

6. Arizona

T7. Washington

T7. Arizona State

T7. Colorado

10. Utah

11. Oregon

12. Oregon State

 

FOLLOW THE DAWGS!

Fans can keep up with all the goings on around the Washington women’s soccer program by following the Huskies on the team’s various social media platforms. You can find the Dawgs on X at @UW_WSoccer, on Instagram at @uw_wsoccer or on Facebook by searching “Washington Women’s Soccer”. Fans can also follow the Huskies through the women’s soccer page at GoHuskies.com.