Press Release
11/2 - GEORGE FOX 0, PUGET SOUND 0: Bruins Battle No. 4 Loggers to Scoreless Tie
NEWBERG, Ore. - Spoiling the University of Puget Sound's bid for a perfect season, the George Fox University Bruins battled the 4th-ranked Loggers to a 0-0 double-overtime tie, but UPS still captured their sixth straight Northwest Conference women's soccer championship Friday here at Morse Field.
Puget Sound is now 18-0-1 overall and 14-0-1 in the conference, giving them 43 points in the NWC standings with one game left. Second-place Whitworth University has 39 points and only one game also, so they cannot catch the Loggers. George Fox, having its best season since going 13-5 in 2000, is 11-6-2 overall and 8-5-2 in the conference. It was the first time all year anyone had taken the Loggers into overtime.
Puget Sound took 30 shots to five for George Fox, but despite the wide gap in the number of shots taken, the match was a defensive gem par excellence. The number of shots on goal was a much better indication of the nature of the game, the Loggers winning that portion of the battle 8-4.
Most of the shots taken by both sides were from well outside the penalty box as both teams' top scorers were closely marked throughout the contest. Janece Levien of UPS, the nation's 10th-ranked scorer with 21 goals, managed 11 shots but only five on goal, while the Loggers' Fiona Gornick (9 goals) and Adrienne Folsom (8 goals) got only one shot on goal apiece. The Bruins' Amber Stevens and Jenny McKinsey, the conference's No. 2 scorers with 10 goals each, got only four shots all together, all on goal and all by Stevens.
George Fox's best shot at a score came midway through the first half when Molly Schaefer wound up with the ball all alone on the right side of the box about 10 yards out after a throw-in and a brief scrum in front of the net, but she popped her shot over the top of the goal. Bruin keeper Jessica Cardwell made two fine stops, one in each overtime, to thwart the Loggers' best opportunities, first stopping a shot by Melissa Abellanida just moments after an attempt by Kelly Anderson had been blocked by a Bruin defender, and grabbing a solid header by Levien two minutes from the end of the second overtime.
Cardwell wound up with eight saves for the Bruins while posting her fifth shutout of the season and 18th of her career, extending her own school record. Katie Wheeler and Kallie Wolfer had two saves apiece for the Loggers, Wheeler working the first half and Wolfer the remainder of the game.
George Fox concludes its season Saturday, hosting Linfield College at 11:00 a.m. Puget Sound closes out the regular season Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Pacific University, then looks forward to Sunday when the NCAA Division III National Tournament field will be announced. The Loggers have earned the NWC automatic berth with their conference crown.