Thursday, August 22
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
University of Washington
vs
Seattle U
Battle For Seattle: Huskies Take On Redhawks Thursday Night On Montlake
August 21, 2024 | Women's Soccer
SEATTLE – Returning to action after a week off, Washington plays host to intra-city foe Seattle U on Thursday at Husky Soccer Stadium, battling the Redhawks for the WAC/101 Club Cup at 7 p.m. PT.
Thursday's match will be available for streaming on B1G+, with live stats available at HuskyStats.com.
SCOUTING SEATTLE U
Seattle U is in its 28th season under the direction of head coach Julie Woodward, who owns more than 300 wins during her time on Capitol Hill. Woodward has guided the Redhawks to five NCAA tournament appearances.
Receiving two first place votes, Seattle U was picked to finish second in the WAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The Redhawks are off to a 1-1-0 start to the season, falling to Oregon in their season opener before rebounding with a 3-1 win over Idaho on Championship Field.
The Redhawks placed two players on the 2024 Preseason All-WAC Team in junior midfielder U'i Kaaihue and senior defender Kait Raffensperger.
Kaaihue owns one of three goals for the Redhawks on the season, joined by junior midfielder Bella Bonnett and graduate student forward Brooke Wilson. Graduate student forward Hallie Bergford and senior midfielder Jourdyn Curran have dished out Seattle U's two assists.
Back for her second season as SU's starter between the posts, sophomore keeper Kassidy Kirgan has allowed a pair of goals, good for a 1.00 goals against average. Making 13 stops through two matches, Kirgan boasts a .867 save percentage.
SERIES HISTORY
Thursday's matchup will be the 19th all-time meeting between UW and Seattle U, with UW remaining undefeated against its Emerald City neighbors with a 17-0-2 record since 1991. The two sides have competed for the past three seasons for the WAC/101 Club Cup trophy, with the Huskies maintaining possession all three years with a 2-0-1 record. Five of the last six meetings have been decided by one goal or less.
LAST MEETING (9/10/23)
SEATTLE - Washington and Seattle U battled for 90 rough and tumble minutes in Sunday's crosstown derby at Championship Field in Capitol Hill but neither team could find a goal as the tilt ended in a scoreless draw.
With the draw, the Huskies retain control of the WAC/101 Club Cup.
In a match that didn't feature a ton of clear cut chances, UW led the matchup in shots 6-4, registering the only three attempts on goal of the day.
The Huskies best look at the opener came in the 30th minute, when Tatum Thomason slipped in Kalea Eichenberger. With just the keeper to beat, the sophomore's strike rose too high, soaring just over the crossbar.
Hailey Still nearly pushed the Dawgs ahead in the 62nd minute, getting on the end of Kelsey Branson's cross. However, Still's bullet header was too straight into the waiting arms of keeper Kassidy Kirgan.
Following 89 minutes of mostly cagey affair, the final minute plus was frantically back and forth. With just under 20 ticks left on the clock, freshman Samiah Shell unleashed a wicked shot from distance, testing the keeper who was able to dive to her left for the save, the final scoring chance of the night.
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.
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%).
STINGY ON D
Including last Thursday's 0-0 draw with Wyoming in the season opener, Washington has posted four straight shutouts and has allowed just three goals over its last seven matches. The Huskies have held a few elite offenses at bay during that stretch, including ranked foes in No. 2 Stanford and No. 18 Colorado in 2023.
LIV MAS
Among the bevy of returners for the Huskies is senior goalkeeper and 2023 team captain Olivia Juarez, who started 18-of-19 matches between the posts for UW in 2023, missing one through injury. Juarez posted four solo clean sheets and added in three more combined shutouts during her junior campaign, her first as the Dawgs' primary keeper. Juarez boasts a 1.02 career goals against average, tied with Hope Solo for the fourth lowest in program history.
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 37 matches over her first two seasons, leading the Huskies to 11 clean sheets. Also making an impact on offense, Suliafu has contributed four assists in her career.
EURO TRIP
This summer, Husky senior Ioanna Papatheodorou was called upon to don her nation's colors, earning a call up to the Greece National Team for a pair of qualifiers for the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championships. Paptheodorou earned a starting XI cap for Greece's 6-0 win over Andorra.
Papatheodorou isn't the only Husky with European experience at the national team level, with Enora Matté earning a handful of caps for the Belgium Under-19 National Team.
T-MONEY
Junior Tatum Thomason ended the 2023 season on a heater, scoring each of Washington's final three goals of the campaign. The Liberty High School product scored an 88th-minute winner at Oregon before capping her sophomore season with her first career brace to vault the Dawgs to a Boeing Apple Cup victory over rival Washington State.
WHAT'S GOOD, HOLMES?
Senior defender Jace Holmes finished the 2023 season with an assist on seven of the Huskies' final 12 goals. Despite not recording her first helper of the season until Washington's 12th match of the season, the junior defender tied for the Pac-12 lead with her seven assists. All of Holmes' assists for the season came in conference action.
SPREADING THE LOVE
Washington found its offensive production from a variety of different places in 2023, with 12 different players recording at least one goal, including nine players who scored for the first time in a Husky kit.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Despite returning the vast majority of its 2023 roster, Washington nonetheless reloaded with a talented crop of nine freshmen newcomers.
Among the group are three players who were selected to the prestigious High School All-American Game in Alex Buck, Maggie Dutra and Andrea Leyva.
HOMECOMING
In addition to nine freshmen, Washington also adds a newcomer with proven experience at the college level in sophomore forward Sophie Runje. Runje, a product of nearby Issaquah High School in Issaquah, Washington, made the move back to King County after spending her freshman season across the state at Gonzaga. Runje scored five goals as a rookie, earning All-WCC Freshman Team plaudits.
HOMEGROWN TALENT
Nine of Washington's 32 players hail from the Evergreen State, with six products of King County (Alex Buck, Malie Chamberland, Maggie Dutra, Anna Menti, Shelby Runje, Samiah Shell), two natives of Pierce County (Sophie Blake, Ava Morton) and one product of Snohomish County (Deanna Montero).
SETTING THE STAGE
15 of Washington's 31 goals during the 2023 came off of set pieces, with six goals coming as the result of corner kicks, five being scored off of free kicks and all four penalties being converted.
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.
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.
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.
Additionally, UW's two non-conference road matches will be streamed live via ESPN+.
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.
Thursday's match will be available for streaming on B1G+, with live stats available at HuskyStats.com.
SCOUTING SEATTLE U
Seattle U is in its 28th season under the direction of head coach Julie Woodward, who owns more than 300 wins during her time on Capitol Hill. Woodward has guided the Redhawks to five NCAA tournament appearances.
Receiving two first place votes, Seattle U was picked to finish second in the WAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The Redhawks are off to a 1-1-0 start to the season, falling to Oregon in their season opener before rebounding with a 3-1 win over Idaho on Championship Field.
The Redhawks placed two players on the 2024 Preseason All-WAC Team in junior midfielder U'i Kaaihue and senior defender Kait Raffensperger.
Kaaihue owns one of three goals for the Redhawks on the season, joined by junior midfielder Bella Bonnett and graduate student forward Brooke Wilson. Graduate student forward Hallie Bergford and senior midfielder Jourdyn Curran have dished out Seattle U's two assists.
Back for her second season as SU's starter between the posts, sophomore keeper Kassidy Kirgan has allowed a pair of goals, good for a 1.00 goals against average. Making 13 stops through two matches, Kirgan boasts a .867 save percentage.
SERIES HISTORY
Thursday's matchup will be the 19th all-time meeting between UW and Seattle U, with UW remaining undefeated against its Emerald City neighbors with a 17-0-2 record since 1991. The two sides have competed for the past three seasons for the WAC/101 Club Cup trophy, with the Huskies maintaining possession all three years with a 2-0-1 record. Five of the last six meetings have been decided by one goal or less.
LAST MEETING (9/10/23)
SEATTLE - Washington and Seattle U battled for 90 rough and tumble minutes in Sunday's crosstown derby at Championship Field in Capitol Hill but neither team could find a goal as the tilt ended in a scoreless draw.
With the draw, the Huskies retain control of the WAC/101 Club Cup.
In a match that didn't feature a ton of clear cut chances, UW led the matchup in shots 6-4, registering the only three attempts on goal of the day.
The Huskies best look at the opener came in the 30th minute, when Tatum Thomason slipped in Kalea Eichenberger. With just the keeper to beat, the sophomore's strike rose too high, soaring just over the crossbar.
Hailey Still nearly pushed the Dawgs ahead in the 62nd minute, getting on the end of Kelsey Branson's cross. However, Still's bullet header was too straight into the waiting arms of keeper Kassidy Kirgan.
Following 89 minutes of mostly cagey affair, the final minute plus was frantically back and forth. With just under 20 ticks left on the clock, freshman Samiah Shell unleashed a wicked shot from distance, testing the keeper who was able to dive to her left for the save, the final scoring chance of the night.
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.
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%).
STINGY ON D
Including last Thursday's 0-0 draw with Wyoming in the season opener, Washington has posted four straight shutouts and has allowed just three goals over its last seven matches. The Huskies have held a few elite offenses at bay during that stretch, including ranked foes in No. 2 Stanford and No. 18 Colorado in 2023.
LIV MAS
Among the bevy of returners for the Huskies is senior goalkeeper and 2023 team captain Olivia Juarez, who started 18-of-19 matches between the posts for UW in 2023, missing one through injury. Juarez posted four solo clean sheets and added in three more combined shutouts during her junior campaign, her first as the Dawgs' primary keeper. Juarez boasts a 1.02 career goals against average, tied with Hope Solo for the fourth lowest in program history.
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 37 matches over her first two seasons, leading the Huskies to 11 clean sheets. Also making an impact on offense, Suliafu has contributed four assists in her career.
EURO TRIP
This summer, Husky senior Ioanna Papatheodorou was called upon to don her nation's colors, earning a call up to the Greece National Team for a pair of qualifiers for the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championships. Paptheodorou earned a starting XI cap for Greece's 6-0 win over Andorra.
Papatheodorou isn't the only Husky with European experience at the national team level, with Enora Matté earning a handful of caps for the Belgium Under-19 National Team.
T-MONEY
Junior Tatum Thomason ended the 2023 season on a heater, scoring each of Washington's final three goals of the campaign. The Liberty High School product scored an 88th-minute winner at Oregon before capping her sophomore season with her first career brace to vault the Dawgs to a Boeing Apple Cup victory over rival Washington State.
WHAT'S GOOD, HOLMES?
Senior defender Jace Holmes finished the 2023 season with an assist on seven of the Huskies' final 12 goals. Despite not recording her first helper of the season until Washington's 12th match of the season, the junior defender tied for the Pac-12 lead with her seven assists. All of Holmes' assists for the season came in conference action.
SPREADING THE LOVE
Washington found its offensive production from a variety of different places in 2023, with 12 different players recording at least one goal, including nine players who scored for the first time in a Husky kit.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Despite returning the vast majority of its 2023 roster, Washington nonetheless reloaded with a talented crop of nine freshmen newcomers.
Among the group are three players who were selected to the prestigious High School All-American Game in Alex Buck, Maggie Dutra and Andrea Leyva.
HOMECOMING
In addition to nine freshmen, Washington also adds a newcomer with proven experience at the college level in sophomore forward Sophie Runje. Runje, a product of nearby Issaquah High School in Issaquah, Washington, made the move back to King County after spending her freshman season across the state at Gonzaga. Runje scored five goals as a rookie, earning All-WCC Freshman Team plaudits.
HOMEGROWN TALENT
Nine of Washington's 32 players hail from the Evergreen State, with six products of King County (Alex Buck, Malie Chamberland, Maggie Dutra, Anna Menti, Shelby Runje, Samiah Shell), two natives of Pierce County (Sophie Blake, Ava Morton) and one product of Snohomish County (Deanna Montero).
SETTING THE STAGE
15 of Washington's 31 goals during the 2023 came off of set pieces, with six goals coming as the result of corner kicks, five being scored off of free kicks and all four penalties being converted.
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.
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.
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.
Additionally, UW's two non-conference road matches will be streamed live via ESPN+.
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.
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/ Women's SoccerKalea!!!!!!!!
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