Ten, nine, eight …
The Northwest Nazarene women's soccer team slowly counted down the time on the Simon Fraser vs. Concordia game Saturday, October 21 – a postseason berth hanging in the balance.
Seven, six, five …
Ten wins on the season. Six shutouts. Seven Great Northwest Athletic Conference victories.
Four, three, two, one.
Best season in school history.
"I could not believe it. All of our hard work finally paid off," said
Ashley Cook-Cox, a senior midfielder from Nine Miles Falls, Wash. "We were always a team that was good and just couldn't win. We were good at possessing balls, but couldn't score. (Now) we're possessing, we're winning and we're showing the GNAC and everyone who supports us what it is all about."
Ashley Cook-Cox
The Nighthawks (7-3 GNAC, 10-5 overall) spent Saturday watching the game that would decide their postseason fate on a big screen in a suite in the Johnson Sports Center. When the final whistle blew, they hooted and hollered; they yelled, "We did it!" and they shot party poppers.
It was an amazing accomplishment for a group of players who had won just 13 games the past three seasons combined.
"It was exhilarating," said
Daniele Ortiz, a senior goalkeeper from Sunnyvale, Calif. "The entire team was so happy, but Ashley, Mabinty (Kanu) and I appreciate it the most because we've been here the past three years without having much success."
Daniele Ortiz
The three four-year starters had experienced plenty of losing and during the darkest of moments it was hard to see this light at the end of the tunnel.
"It was really hard, constantly losing," Cook-Cox said. "(We thought), 'Oh my gosh, we deserve so much better, but how do we get that?' And that is what has been so cool this year. We are finally getting what we dreamed of."
GNAC women's soccer features a conference tournament because of an unbalanced regular season schedule, meaning the Nighthawks only play each team once. On the men's side, they play the traditional home-and-away schedule so there is no tournament.
For head coach
Mary Trigg, who is in her fifth season at the helm of the Nighthawks, she thinks the key to the sudden success has been the buy-in to the culture she has been trying to create.
"Winning just breeds more winning and you feed off of that," Trigg said. "Overall, I think we just have buy-in from girls – from top to bottom they don't want to lose."
Her favorite part during the celebration Saturday was watching the faces of her three senior starters.
"I've seen their faces sad for so many years," Trigg said, "so for me, I like to look to them and see them be excited on the field or after we are winning games … just kind of seeing their hard work. They've stuck with the program. They've stuck with what I'm trying to do. To see them get the reward is pretty cool."
But the season isn't over yet. The team reveled in their postseason berth and then went back to work Monday getting ready to host defending national champion Western Washington at 3:30 pm Thursday.
Mabinty Kanu
"(The legacy) hasn't really hit me yet," said Kanu, a defender from San Jose, Calif. "I'm just kind of a worker. I come do my job and take it day-by-day. I still have practice and I still have games left and it's not done yet. There is still work to be done."
Work and hopefully more countdown parties.
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