SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth women's soccer team will open its Northwest Conference schedule this weekend with a pair of challenging matches. The Pirates will play at Pacific Lutheran on Saturday and at Puget Sound on Sunday. Both matches are scheduled to start at noon. The Lutes and Loggers have won or shared every Northwest Conference women's soccer title since 2002.
Links to live video and live statistics are available on the Whitworth women's soccer schedule.
The Pirates: Whitworth (0-1-3) finished with two ties last weekend in Walla Walla. The Pirates scored first and last in a 2-2 draw with NAIA-member Corban on Saturday. The tying goal came in the 90th minute off the foot of Kylee Russell. Emmy Moore's second half penalty kick pulled Whitworth into a 1-1 tie with UC Santa Cruz on Sunday.
The Pirates have scored three goals and allowed four this season. Three different players have scored for the Bucs, including Katrina Costales, who scored the team's first goal of the season on Saturday.
The Buck (Ball) Stops Here: Senior GK Kate Nelson is a two-time second team All-Northwest Conference honoree. She has posted 17 shutouts during her Pirate career. Nelson has a 0.67 goals-against average so far this season and has stopped nearly 88% of the shots she has faced.
The Opponents: Pacific Lutheran is 2-1-1 against a very tough non-conference schedule in 2023. The Lutes went 1-1 in Virginia last week, defeating 4th-ranked Virginia Wesleyan 2-0 before falling to 6th-ranked Christopher Newport 2-0. Head coach Seth Spidahl is in his 12th season and has led PLU to the last six NWC titles. Senior midfielder Lily Dose has scored twice this season. Last year the Lutes defeated the Pirates twice, 2-1 in Parkland and 2-0 in Spokane. Whitworth has not defeated PLU since the 2018 season.
Puget Sound is 2-2 and the Loggers are coming off victories over Northwest University (1-0) and UC Santa Cruz (2-1) last week. UPS made the NCAA DIII tournament last season as an at-large participant, leading to Stephanie Cox going from interim coach to official head coach. Junior midfielder Kya Scott has two goals and one assist for far in 2023. The Loggers defeated Whitworth twice last fall, by identical 2-1 scores. UPS has won three straight games in the series.
The Coach: Whitworth soccer alum Cameron Bushey is in his second season as head coach of the women's soccer team. The Pirates finished 6-8-5 overall and 6-6-4 (4th place) in the NWC last season.
He came from Stanislaus State, where he was the top assistant coach. Bushey has club coaching stints in Spokane and Colorado and he was an assistant at Gonzaga University for two seasons (2018-19). He graduated from Whitworth in 2012 as a four-time All-NWC honoree who helped lead the Pirates to three NWC titles and NCAA Division III tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.
Coming up: Whitworth will host Whitman (Wednesday, Sept. 20) and Pacific (Saturday, Sept. 23) next week.
