NAMPA, Idaho – This Thursday, Northwest Nazarene women's soccer will attempt what no team in program history has done before - reach the final of the GNAC Championships.
 
The Nighthawks (10-4-3, 8-4-2 GNAC) are in the conference tournament for just the second time in program history (2017). That season, they were the fourth seed and fell to top-seeded Concordia 3-0 in the semifinal.
 
This year, NNU's semifinal opponent will be second-seed and tournament host Western Washington (13-3-3, 10-3-1 GNAC), battling the Vikings at 7:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, Nov. 11 at WWU's Harrington Field.
 
Regular-season champion Seattle Pacific (15-1-1, 12-1-1 GNAC) is the tournament top seed and will face four-seed Simon Fraser (5-10-2, 6-7-1 GNAC) in the opening game Thursday at 4:00 p.m.
 
Live Coverage
The tournament will feature a live webcast on YouTube on GNAC.tv (search gnacsports on YouTube).  Andrew Harvey will handle the play-by-play duties for all three games.
 
Live stats for all games can be found at this link.
 
Ticketing and Parking Information
Advance Tickets: Can be purchased online soon at GNACTickets.com. Tickets purchased online are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors (60 and older), high school and college students and youth 12 and under. Children five years of age and younger are admitted free. Click Here For A FAQ On Championship Ticketing.
 
Gameday Tickets: Can be purchased at the Harrington Field Box Office will be $12 for adults and $7 for seniors (60 and older), high school and college students and youth ages 6-12. Children five years of age and under are admitted free.
 
Parking: Fan parking on game day will be located in the C lots to the west and to the north of Harrington Field. Parking on game day will be free of charge (beginning at 2 pm on Thursday and all day on Saturday). Click on the following link for a WWU Campus Map.
 
In order to ensure the safety of everyone in attendance at the GNAC Women's Soccer Championships, face masks are to be worn at all times regardless of vaccination status. This includes spectators, volunteers and staff. The only exception is for student-athletes actively participating in the contest. The spectator capacity limit will be 500 per day.
 
Nighthawks Notes
Northwest Nazarene returns to the Championships for the first time since 2017, finishing third with an 8-4-2 GNAC mark. The Nighthawks are enjoying a breakout season from Madison Grande with 19 total points, tying for second in the GNAC with nine goals and ranking second with 61 shots. That shots mark is tied for the most in a single season in program history, while her 30 shots on goal are a new program record. Her nine goals are also tied for fifth in program history for a single season.
 
Ashley Parton is next for NNU with 12 points on four goals and four assists, followed by Sierra Sanchez with four goals.
 
Magda Wronski leads the team with five assists, while McKenzie Buell has chipped in four assists to go with a pair of goals. Wronski is currently tied for third in NNU history with 15 career assists.
 
Kate Bleffert, Chandler Kauffman, and Jade Zimmer join Wronski on the back line for a formidable defense, ranking third in the GNAC with a 1.07 goals against average and third with nine shutouts. When Zimmer, a fifth-year senior, suits up for Thursday's semifinal, she will set a new program record with her 79^th game played.
 
Goalkeeper Alexis Montoya leads the conference with 95 saves and is the conference's only athlete to win three GNAC Player of the Week awards. She also leads the conference and ranks 13^th nationally with a .880 save percentage. This year, she broke the program records for career wins (currently 25) and career shutouts (currently 19).
 
Head Coach Mary Ybarguen is in her ninth season at NNU, amassing a 61-76-13 overall record. NNU has had a winning season in three of her last five campaigns, and the Nighthawks have finished four of those five at .500 or above.
 
In the 21 seasons that NNU has been in the GNAC, this is just the fourth year that the Nighthawks have eclipsed 10 wins. One of those seasons was last year, when NNU won all 11 games they played during the shortened COVID-19 campaign.
 
The last two years have been the best two-year stretch by far in program history, with the Nighthawks going 21-4-3 (.804) over that span.
 
As a result of the undefeated spring of 2021, NNU was ranked 11^th in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches in the preseason poll. The Nighthawks moved up to 10^th after a 2-0 opening weekend, but fell out of the rankings starting in week two.
 
NNU is currently in a decent position for NCAA postseason hopes, ranking fifth in the latest West Region ranking that came out last Wednesday. Six teams will qualify for the NCAA tournament from the region, with the selections announced following conference championships on Monday, Nov. 15 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
 
Scouting Western Washington
Western Washington, who had won seven of the past eight regular season titles, finished second this year with a 10-3-1 conference record.
 
The Vikings received contributions from Jenna Killman, who has nine goals, two assists and a conference-leading 66 shots, and Texas A&M transfer Tera Ziemer, who has six goals in her debut season with WWU.
 
Natalie Dierickx and the Viking defense tied for the conference lead with nine shutouts on the year and are second with a 0.60 goals against average.
 
Scouting Seattle Pacific
The Falcons excelled on both the offensive and defensive ends of the pitch, outscoring their conference opponents 48-6 over 14 matches.
 
Seattle Pacific features the GNAC's top three point scorers in Sophia Chilczuk (six goals, GNAC-leading 13 assists), Makena Rietz (GNAC-leading 10 goals) and Lauren Forster (nine goals, three assists), while goalkeeper Riley Travis kept nine shutouts defensively and led the GNAC with a 0.42 goals against average.
 
The Falcons went a perfect 6-0-0 this season against the other three teams who qualified for the Championships.
 
Scouting Simon Fraser
Simon Fraser needed double overtime in the season's final match to secure the fourth seed, but Giuliana Zaurrini scored a clutch penalty kick in the 105th minute for her team-leading fourth goal of the year to help SFU stave off Western Oregon for the final playoff spot.
 
Zaurrini finished the regular season as SFU's leading scorer with four goals and two assists for ten points. Nicole Anderson and Kelsey Fisher split goalkeeper duties throughout the year, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, in the GNAC in goals against average.
 
Simon Fraser ended the year with a 6-7-1 conference record.