Huskies Hit The Rockies To Take On Air Force

Saturday, September 16

Colorado Springs, CO

12:00 PM

University of Washington

Air Force

September 15, 2023 | Women's Soccer

UW Notes Air Force Notes Watch Live Stats

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Wrapping up its non-conference slate, Washington travels to Colorado for a Saturday afternoon matchup with Air Force, facing the Falcons at noon PT at Cadet Soccer Stadium.

The match will be available for streaming through the Mountain West Digital Network. Links to live coverage can be found above and on the schedule page at GoHuskies.com.

SCOUTING AIR FORCE
Air Force is in its second season under the direction of head coach Laura Busby, who owns a .500 record at the academy at 10-10-4. Prior to taking over in Colorado Springs, Busby was a head coach for two seasons at Jacksonville.

Having dropped back-to-back matches, the Falcons are 3-3 on the season. UW will be looking to hand AFA its first loss at Cadet Soccer Stadium, with the Falcons owning a 2-0-0 record at home this season.

Senior Jordi Ives leads the Air Force offense, scoring three goals on the season while also pacing AFA in shots and shots on goal. Sophomore Caeli Sherman has also scored three times, while junior Mia Otero owns two goals and two assists to tie Ives and Sherman for the team lead with six points.

Seniors Cammi Bych and Sydney Davis have split the six matches for Air Force so far this season with three starts apiece in goal. Bych has delivered a 1.47 goals against average with a .808 save percentage, while Davis sits at 2.32 and .667, respectively.

SERIES HISTORY
Last season's matchup between U Dub and Air Force in Seattle was the first ever between the two programs. Washington came out victorious in a 5-0 rout at Husky Soccer Stadium.

LAST MEETING (8/21/22)
SEATTLE - The Washington women's soccer team picked up its second shutout win of the season over Air Force, 5-0. UW outshot the Falcons 19-3 in the win.

The Huskies got going early with two goals in the first 11 minutes of action. Kala McDaniel was assisted by Summer Yates in the 4th minute to put the Huskies on the board.

Six minutes later Karlee Stueckle scored her second goal of the season thanks to a double assist by Shae Holmes and Kyla Ferry.

Hailey Still got on the board for Washington for the second straight game as well, notching a goal in the 42nd minute off a double assist by Kolo Suliafu and Kelsey Branson.

Helena Reischling opened the scoring up in the second half with a goal in the 67th minute, her first of the season. In the 86th minute, Tatum Thomason recorded her first career goal off the free kick by Jace Holmes.

Air Force boasted six saves, five of them coming in the second half. The Falcons registered only one shot on goal.

SO FRESH AND SO CLEAN CLEAN
The Huskies have posted back-to-back clean sheets, with four total shutouts for the season. UW's .571 shutout percentage is the fourth highest in the Pac-12.

Of the 13 collegiate matches that Husky keeper Olivia Juarez has appeared in, more than half of them have finished as Washington clean sheets. The junior shot stopper has registered five combined and two solo shutouts in her UW career.

ROAD WARRIORS
Washington is undefeated in its last three road matches. The Huskies are 1-0-1 away from home this season with a win at Idaho and a draw at Seattle U. The Dawgs capped the 2022 season with a historic road win, defeating Washington State in Pullman for the first time since 1996.

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.

SET IT UP, KNOCK IT DOWN
Half of Washington's 14 goals this season have come off of set pieces, with four goals coming as the result of corner kicks, two being scored off of free kicks and one penalty being converted.

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, UW owns a 10-2-2 record at Husky Soccer Stadium.

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.