Huskies Start NCAA Tournament Run Thursday Afternoon At Utah State

Friday, November 15

Logan, UT

University of Washington

Utah State

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Huskies Start NCAA Tournament Run Thursday Afternoon At Utah State

November 14, 2024 | Women's Soccer

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LOGAN, Utah – Making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2020-21 season, the Washington women's soccer team starts its run Thursday afternoon at No. 25 Utah State.

The Huskies and Aggies will do battle at Chuck & Gloria Bell Field at 1 p.m. PT, streaming on ESPN+. A link to live stats is available at HuskyStats.com.

SCOUTING UTAH STATE
Utah State is in its fourth season under the direction of head coach Manny Martins, who came to Logan after successful stints as an assistant at fellow Big Ten programs UCLA and Oregon. Under Martins, the Aggie program has reached new heights, winning back-to-back Mountain West regular season championships and earning consecutive NCAA Tournament bids.

Tied for the fewest losses in the nation, Utah State enters postseason play with an 18-1-4 record, including 7-1-3 in Mountain West action. The Aggies have reached as high as No. 7 in the nation per the United Soccer Coaches.

The Aggies boast 11 different players with at least three goals this season, led by junior forward Tess Werts with eight goals in 2024. Werts also paces the Aggies with nine assists, ranking second in the Mountain West with 25 total points. Utah State's 2.70 goals per game ranks fifth in the nation, while USU's +48 goal differential is the third highest in the country.

The Aggies implement a two-keeper system, with USC Upstate transfer Cora Brendle seeing the bulk of the action with 16 starts. Brendle owns a 0.53 GAA with a .804 save percentage. Meanwhile, sophomore Shay Kercher-Pratt boasts a 0.83 GAA with a .792 save percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
UW is undefeated in three previous meetings with Utah State at 2-0-1, posting a 1-0-1 record in Logan. Washington earned a 1-1 draw at Utah State in the most recent matchup in 2012. Prior to that meeting, Washington earned decisive victories over USU in 2009 and 2001.

LAST MEETING (9/13/12)
LOGAN, Utah - A Lindsay Elston penalty kick in the 85th minute tied the game for the Huskies at Utah State in Logan, Utah Thursday night. After 110 minutes and two overtime periods, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

After a pretty even and scoreless first half, Utah State took the lead in the 59th minute. Jennifer Flynn, who was dangerous around the goal the entire game for Utah State, scored the games' first goal on a scramble in the box.

Near desperation time, the Huskies got a break as junior Annie Sittauer drew a hard foul on the left side of the box which resulted in a penalty kick for Washington. Elston stepped up to take the kick and buried her penalty into the left corner of the goal.

Tied at 1-1 after 90 minutes, the teams played two golden goal 10-minute overtime periods. The Aggies had several good opportunities to win the game in the final minute of the first OT off of corners, but were just high over the net or punched out by Washington goalkeeper Kari Davidson.

Washington had the majority of its chances to win in the second overtime.

Davidson, a senior from Portland, Ore., made nine total saves in the game, playing all 110 minutes in goal.

Utah State took 21 shots in the game and Washington had 16. Elston had eight of the Husky shots.

SERIES HISTORY
Washington landed two All-Big Ten honorees during its first season in the conference in leading goal scorer Ioanna Papatheodorou and top defender Kolo Suliafu. Additionally, junior Lucy Newlin was UW's selection for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

TOURN-ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY
Washington avenged its regular season loss to Iowa in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, advancing over the Hawkeyes 5-4 on penalties behind three shootout saves from keeper Mia Hamant. Hamant was rock solid in goal all night, making a career-high 12 saves, tied for seventh most all-time at UW and nearly double her previous career-high of seven.

GET HER TO THE GREEKS
During the final week of the regular season, UW senior striker Ioanna Papatheodorou earned a call up to the Greece National Team for 2025 European Championship qualifying action in Crete, Greece, and Leuven, Belgium. Papatheodorou entered as a sub in the 74th minute of Sunday's second leg as Belgium advanced through the playoff matchup.

It was the second senior team cap for Papatheodorou, who made the starting XI for Greece's 6-0 win over Andorra in group stage qualifying earlier this summer.

BRICK-BY-BRICK
Washington has proven to be one of the toughest defenses to crack in 2024, ranking 10th in the nation with a 0.572 team goals-against-average and second nationally with a 0.884 team save percentage. UW has posted 10 clean sheets, eclipsing its total of six from 2023. Along with UCLA, Washington was one of two Big Ten teams that did not allow multiple goals in a single conference match.

MAMA MIA
Junior Mia Hamant has been a breakout star for Washington in 2024, ranking third in the nation and first in the Big Ten with an .880 save percentage as well as 16th in the NCAA and third in the B1G in goals-against-average at 0.638. Hamant has garnered seven of UW's 10 clean sheets this season.

SPARTY PARTY
Washington's victory over No. 5 Michigan State on Sunday was UW's first win over a top-5 ranked team since 2017, when the Huskies defeated No. 2 Florida 1-0 at Husky Soccer Stadium.

ROOKIE RECOGNITION
Washington's Andrea Leyva, a midfielder out of Las Vegas, came in at No. 56 in TopDrawerSoccer's midseason Top-100 Freshman rankings. Leyva has appeared in 15 matches for the Huskies, cracking the Starting XI 10 times.

YES INDEED I CAN RUN IT, RUN IT
While Washington made its living largely off of set piece opportunities in 2023, the vast majority of the Huskies' 24 goals in 2024 have come through build-up play. The Huskies have scored 16 times this season from the run of play, compared to eight goals coming off of set pieces.

STARTING XI FIXTURE
Since making seven-straight starts to end her freshman campaign, junior Kelsey Branson has not failed to crack the Huskies' starting XI a single time, a streak spanning 45 consecutive matches. Branson is the only Husky to start all 19 matches in 2023 and all 19 fixtures of 2024.

EMPTYING THE TANK
Kolo Suliafu has not come off the pitch in any of the last 24 matches for Washington, playing 2,180 straight minutes for the Huskies. Suliafu played the full 90 minutes in 13 of 18 matches played in 2023.

GANG'S ALL BACK
Washington returns nearly the entirety of its roster from the 2023 roster, standing as the only team in the Big Ten to return its entire starting XI with 11 returners with 10 or more starts in 2023.

What's more, the bulk of the Huskies firepower is back, with Washington returning the vast majority of its goals (26/31, 83.9%), assists (31/33, 93.9%), points (83/95, 87.4%) shots (215/246, 87.4%), shots on goal (90/108, 83.3%) and game-winning goals (9/9, 100%) from a season ago.

Additionally, with 3-of-4 goalkeepers back from the 2023 roster, the Dawgs return practically all of its goalkeeper minutes (1605:29/1710:00, 93.9%) and saves (62/64, 96.9%).

B1G PAPI
Leading Washington to a six-point weekend with wins over Michigan and No. 5 Michigan State, senior striker Ioanna Papatheodorou was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday. The Greek international bagged four goals on the week, including both match winners. Papatheodorou both scored the equalizing goal and gave Washington the lead in Thursday's 3-1 victory over the Wolverines, then doubled down with a pair of long range free kick strikes, the second with just over five minutes left on the clock, to lift the Huskies 2-1 over the Spartans on Sunday.

Papatheodorou is Washington's first-ever Big Ten Player of the Week honoree and the first Husky to earn conference player of the week honors since Kelsey Branson and Olivia Juarez were named the Pac-12 Offensive Player and Goalkeeper of the Week for week 9 of 2023 after Washington's 1-1 draw at No. 2 Stanford.

The senior was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer Team of the week and reeled in NCAA Player of the Week laurels.

PAYING (OFF) THE PENALTY
Ioanna Papatheodorou is about as sure of a thing from the penalty spot as there is in college soccer. The senior has converted seven of the eight spot kicks taken in her career, including each of the last five. Papatheodorou has been called to take a penalty exactly twice in all four of her collegiate seasons.

A B1G NEW ERA
Washington enters a new era in 2024 as a member of the prestigious Big Ten Conference. The move means not only new destinations but new challenges for the Huskies as well, with the Big Ten boasting nine teams that earned a bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament and seven schools ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll.

Washington, a founding member of what eventually became the Pac-12 Conference, began play in what was then known as the Pac-10 during the conference's first season supporting women's soccer in 1995. UW launched its women's soccer program in 1991.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY
For the first time since 2018, Washington returns every member of its coaching staff, retaining assistant coaches Cole Schmit, Raphael Cox and Kary Whitney to Nicole Van Dyke's staff.

SMART COOKIES
For the ninth straight season, Washington has received the United Soccer Coaches Academic Award after earning a 3.67 team GPA.

KEEP AN EYE OUT
Prior to the season, the Big Ten Conference announced its Players to Watch List, with a trio of Husky juniors making the cut in midfielder's Kelsey Branson and Tatum Thomason and defender Kolo Suliafu.

Thomason led the Dawgs with six goals in 2023, scoring three times in the final three matches of the season. Thomason came up in the clutch all season long for the Huskies, bagging four of UW's nine match-winning goals for the season.

Following up on a breakout freshman campaign, Branson doubled up with another phenomenal season in 2023, scoring four goals and chipping in three assists. The San Diego native earned her second career Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after leading UW to a historic road point at No. 2 Stanford.

With a combination of speed, toughness and defensive awareness, Suliafu has served as a backline anchor for the Huskies since stepping on campus in 2022. The Ontario, California, native has started 40 matches over her first two-plus seasons, leading the Huskies to 13 clean sheets. Also making an impact on offense, Suliafu has contributed four assists in her career.

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB
One of the more unique paths to the Husky roster comes from junior Avery Nguyen, who was offered a roster spot prior to the start of the 2023 season after a trial during preseason training. 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.

Nguyen played a significant role for the Dawgs during the 2023 season, appearing in 11 matches and making a pair of starts.

HUSKIES PICKED 13TH IN BIG TEN PRESEASON POLL
The Big Ten Conference announced the 2024 Preseason Coaches' Poll prior to the season, with Washington predicted to finish 13th in its new league table as voted on by the conference's 18 head coaches.

2024 BIG TEN PRESEASON COACHES' POLL
1. UCLA
2. Penn State
3. Michigan State
4. Nebraska
5. USC
6. Wisconsin
7. Rutgers
8. Iowa
9. Ohio State
10. Indiana
11. Michigan
12. Northwestern
13. Washington
14. Minnesota
15. Illinois
16. Purdue
17. Maryland
18. Oregon

WATCH THE DAWGS
Aside from Washington's matchups with USC and Iowa, which will be featured on the Big Ten Network, all UW home matches and Big Ten road matches will be available for streaming through B1G+. The live streams require a subscription, priced at $89.99 for one year or $12.99 per month. The B1G+ subscription allows you access to all non-televised Big Ten events, in addition to all non-televised Washington events throughout the year.

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.