Complete match notes (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Promise will hopefully be turned into prosperity for the Portland State women's soccer team this weekend, as they host Nevada and Gonzaga in a pair of matches at Hillsboro Stadium.
 
The Vikings (0-1-0) have played two matches so far this season that both looked very promising, but still sit on zero points.
 
One of the matches was a 6-1 exhibition win over Fraser Valley in which senior Katie Forsee played what would have gone down as the best individual match in program history if the match had counted. Forsee scored the first four goals of the match for the Vikings – the first three in only 25 minutes – and assisted on the Vikings' fifth goal. If the match had counted, Forsee would have finished with the school records for fastest hat trick (25 minutes), most goals in a match (4) and most points in a match (9).
 
However, as is the nature of exhibitions, the very promising result counted as nothing for the Vikings, as did their very-promising-but-still-a-loss 2-1 defeat last Friday at the hands of cross-town rival and national powerhouse University of Portland.
 
The Vikings took their first-ever led on the perennially strong Pilots while scoring their first-ever goal against them in the 14th minute of the match. Sophomore forward Regan Russell headed in the goal off a free kick from redshirt senior defender Kristin Moyer.
 
Portland State held the lead through the entire first half before a 47th-minute goal from UP's Hannah Griffiths Boston knotted the score again at 1-1. The Vikings nearly went back up a goal off a pair of chances soon after Boston's goal, and Forsee had another chance in the 70th minute when she sent a header just wide.
 
UP found the decisive goal soon after that, as Boston converted a penalty kick in the 84th minute to give UP the 2-1 win.
 
The loss, especially on a late penalty kick, stung, but it easily went down as the Vikings' best performance ever against the Pilots. The Vikings had lost by a combined score of 31-0 in their previous seven matches against UP, and had only ever lost by less than two goals once before. That match came in 2010 when the Vikings lost 1-0 despite being outshot 27-2, a far cry from the even, 14-14 performance on shots, this time around.
 
Still, two good results, and yet no points.
 
Friday's match will be the Vikings' first chance to change that, and will come against an opponent the Vikings have had good results against in the past in Nevada. The Vikings beat Nevada 1-0 last season, and have won their last five against the Wolf Pack including three straight shutouts.
 
The Vikings could have a harder time pulling out points from Sunday's match, as they face a Gonzaga team that beat them 5-2 last season. Gonzaga had a good start to their 2017 season last weekend, as they posted a pair of shutout wins over South Dakota (4-0) and Omaha (2-0).
 
PSU can take confidence from the promise it showed in its first two matches, however, and with luck, that promise will turn into results this weekend.
 
MATCH INFO:
Friday, Aug. 25 – vs. Nevada – Hillsboro, Ore. (Hillsboro Stadium) – 1 p.m. (PT)
Sunday, Aug. 27 – vs. Gonzaga – Hillsboro, Ore. (Hillsboro Stadium) – 3 p.m. (PT)
 
SCOUTING NEVADA:
• The Nevada Wolf Pack (1-1-0) split their two matches during the opening weekend of the season last weekend, losing 2-0 at home to Fordham before beating Sacramento State 3-2. The Wolf Pack came back from two goals down to beat the Hornets, after falling behind 2-0 in the 25th minute. The Wolf Pack pulled one goal back before halftime, and then tied the match with their second goal in the 72nd minute. The match continued into double overtime before Nevada's Rachel Gensch scored the game-winning golden goal in the 102nd minute.
• The Wolf Pack return seven of their 11 starters from their 2016 team that finished 5-13-0 overall and 2-9-0 while placing 11th in the Mountain West Conference.
• Erin Otagaki enters her first year as the full-time head coach for the Wolf Pack, after serving as an assistant in 2015 and interim co-head coach with Casey Tate in 2016.
• The Wolf Pack return all three players that tied for the team lead in goals scored with two each last season in Rylee Peterson, Angel Meriwether and Maria Sanchez. Peterson led the Wolf Pack with five points, as she added an assist on top of her two goals. The Wolf Pack lost Hannah Wuensche, who led the Wolf Pack with two assists last season – though the Wolf Pack finished the 2016 season with only five assists total.
• The Wolf Pack lost starting goalkeeper Kelsey Quintos off last year's team. Junior goalkeeper Lauryn Horstdaniel started both matches for the Wolf Pack last weekend, and made 10 saves in her team's 3-2 win over Sacramento State.
• Rachel Gensch, Analyse Talavera and Mackenzie Robinson scored the Wolf Pack's three goals against Sacramento State last Sunday. Rylee Peterson assisted on two of the goals, while Eleanor Small assisted on another.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS NEVADA:
The Vikings lead the all-time series between them and Nevada, 5-2-0. The Vikings have won the last five matches in the series, including last season, when the Vikings won 1-0 on the back of a 67th-minute goal from Morgan Matthews. The Vikings have shut out the Wolf Pack in their last three matches against them, and haven't lost to the Wolf Pack since a 1-0 defeat in 2006.
 
SCOUTING GONZAGA:
• The Gonzaga Bulldogs (2-0-0) opened their 2017 season with a pair of shutout wins last weekend, giving them only their fourth 2-0 start to a season in program history. The Bulldogs opened their season with a 4-0 win over South Dakota last Friday, and then beat Omaha 2-0 last Sunday. The Bulldogs will play SMU in a home match Thursday before playing the Vikings on Sunday.
• Sophomore defender Madeline Gotta was named the West Coast Conference Women's Soccer Player of the Week on Monday, becoming the Bulldogs' first WCC Player of the Week honoree since Aug. 29, 2011.
• Chris Watkins took over as head coach of the Bulldogs in December 2016. Watkins came to the Bulldogs from BYU, where he had been a member of the coaching staff since 1996. Watkins took over as associate head coach at BYU in 2013, and led the Cougars to a Sweet 16 finish in 2016.
• The Bulldogs return seven starters from their 2016 team that finished 6-10-2 overall and 2-7-0 while placing ninth in the WCC.
• The Bulldogs lost their two leading scorers from last season in Karley Baggerly and Aliyah Miller. Baggerly led the Bulldogs in goals (6) and points (15), and finished tied for second on the team in assists (3). Miller, meanwhile, ranked second on the team with four goals and 10 points last season. The Bulldogs also lost Sarah Carter off last year's team after she led the team with four assists in 2016.
• Taylor Kernion, Callie Best and Mari Kneisel all tie for the Bulldogs' top returning scorers from last season after they all scored two goals each in 2016. Kernion also tied for second on the team with three assists last season, along with Baggerly and fellow returner Savanah Van Citters.
• Six different players scored the Bulldogs' six goals last season, while five different players recorded the team's five assists. Madeline Gotta recorded a goal and assist last weekend, giving her the early team lead in points with three.
• Isabel Jones started both matches in goal for the Bulldogs last weekend, and made five saves between both matches. Jones beat out returning goalkeepers Sarah Swanson and Allison Seifert for the starting job as a redshirt freshman.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS GONZAGA:
The Bulldogs lead the all-time series between them and the Vikings, 10-3-2. The Vikings last beat the Bulldogs in 2009, when they won 2-1 in what also stands as the Vikings' last home match against the Bulldogs. The Vikings hadn't played the Bulldogs in six seasons before resuming their series last season, when the Bulldogs beat the Vikings 5-2 in Spokane.
 
LAST TIME OUT:
The Vikings put together their best performance ever against cross-town rival and national powerhouse University of Portland in their season opener last Friday. The Pilots came back to beat the Vikings 2-1 behind a pair of second-half goals, but the Vikings scored their first-ever goal against the Pilots while also taking their first-ever lead with a goal in the 14th minute. Sophomore forward Regan Russell scored the historic goal for the Vikings after heading in a free kick from redshirt senior defender Kristin Moyer. The Vikings took the lead into halftime before a 47th-minute goal from University of Portland's Hannah Griffiths Boston knotted the score again at 1-1. The Vikings nearly went back up a goal off a pair of chances soon after Boston's goal, and senior Katie Forsee sent a header just wide in the 70th minute. UP found the decisive goal, however, as Boston converted a penalty kick in the 84th minute to give UP the 2-1 win. The Vikings had lost by a combined score of 31-0 in their previous seven matches against UP, and had only ever lost by less than two goals once before. That match came in 2010 when the Vikings lost 1-0 despite being outshot 27-2. The Vikings equaled the Pilots, 14-14, in shots this time around, however. Portland State also played an exhibition against the University of the Fraser Valley last Tuesday, winning 6-1. Forsee led the Vikings with four goals and an assist, which would have given her the records for fastest hat trick (25 minutes), most goals in a match (4) and most points in a match (9) if the match had counted.
 
UPCOMING:
The Vikings host NCAA Division III George Fox next Thursday at 1 p.m. at Hillsboro Stadium, and then head out on the road for a match at Pacific (Calif.) next Sunday.
 
KATIE BURTON ERA:
The Katie Burton era opened for the Vikings last Friday with the team's match against cross-town rival and national powerhouse University of Portland. The Vikings put together a strong opening performance for Burton, as they scored their first-ever goal against the perennially strong Pilots, and took their first-ever lead as well. Burton also led the Vikings to a 6-1 exhibition win over Fraser Valley last Tuesday, which would have been the Vikings' most goals in a match since 2013 if it had counted. Burton came to the Vikings after serving as the associate head coach at her alma mater Sacramento State, where she led a program turnaround in just over two years there. The Hornets hadn't made the Big Sky tournament in four seasons before Burton's arrival, but made the Big Sky tournament in their first year under Burton in 2015. Burton led the Hornets to a second-place finish last season, when they clinched the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the Big Sky tournament with a 2-1 win over the Vikings in both teams' regular-season finale.
 
THE FORCE-EE IS WITH THE VIKINGS:
Senior Katie Forsee had a performance to remember in the Vikings' 6-1 exhibition win over Fraser Valley last Tuesday. Forsee scored the Vikings' first four goals in the match and assisted on the fifth. If the match had counted, Forsee would have finished with the records for fastest hat trick (25 minutes), most goals in a match (4) and most points in a match (9). Forsee led the Vikings with five goals last season, and scored three of the team's six game-winning goals. Forsee's three game-winning goals tied her for the second-best single-season total in program history, just one behind the single-season record of four game-winning goals that Cori Bianchini set in 2013. Forsee also set the program record for shots in a single match with 12 against North Dakota on Oct. 16, 2016, and tied her own school record for shots on goal in a Big Sky match with six against the Fighting Hawks.
 
IRON WOMAN:
Fifth-year senior Kristin Moyer did not miss a minute of action in 14 of the Vikings' 18 matches last season, and only missed a total of 40 minutes in the other four matches combined. For her career, Moyer has missed playing time in just nine matches, and did not miss a minute of any match in 2015. Additionally, Moyer has started all 56 matches of her career, giving her a chance to break the school records for career starts and minutes played if she stays healthy this season. Moyer has played 5,022 minutes in her career, just 1,202 off Juli Edwards' current record of 6,224. Moyer will need the Vikings to make the Big Sky tournament in 2017 to break the school record for career starts, however, as she ranks 18 starts behind the current record shared by Nathalie Wollman and Dolly Enneking at 74 – and the Vikings only have 17 matches on their regular-season schedule.
 
NEWCOMERS:
The Vikings added 13 newcomers to their roster in 2017, including seven from Oregon. Additionally, the Vikings added two players from Washington, two players from Arizona, and a player each from California and Idaho. Of the 13 newcomers, 11 came into the season as freshman, while Tiegan Horton and Molly Joyce enter as junior and sophomore transfers, respectively. The 11 freshman for the Vikings are: Rilee Castilla, Megan Cornett, Paige Donathan, Liz Hansen, Mya Lopez, Tasi Poore, Teá Poore, Kendall Pope, Diamond Quinn, Ellie Vasey, Teri Walters.
 
2016 SEASON RECAP:
The Portland State Vikings came within a game of returning to the Big Sky tournament last season. The Vikings entered their regular-season finale against Sacramento State with the chance to clinch a spot in the tournament with a win, only to fall to the Hornets, 2-1. The season-ending loss put a damper on what had been a strong, and at times dramatic, push by the Vikings to make the tournament. The Vikings entered their final road weekend four points out of the sixth and final playoff spot, and had lost eight straight Big Sky road matches at that point. The Vikings pulled out a pair of 1-0 wins at Northern Colorado and North Dakota, however, giving them their first six-point conference road weekend since 2013. The true magic followed the following weekend when then-senior Breanne Chilton-Eddy scored a golden goal on her own Senior Day against Weber State on a magical shot that ESPN ran on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays that night. The Vikings also came back to beat the Wildcats after giving up the first goal – the first time they had done that since 2013.