NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene women's soccer made history on Thursday night, earning their first-ever GNAC Championships win with a 2-1 victory over Seattle Pacific to advance to Saturday's final.
The second-seeded Nighthawks (12-3-4, 9-3-2 GNAC) got the victory in just their third GNAC Championships appearance, and will now look to earn the GNAC's auto bid with a win on Saturday to make their first-ever NCAA Championships appearance.
How It Happened
NNU opened the scoring almost immediately, as in the fourth minute
Savanna Herz got her foot on a ball in the box and flicked it over the keeper for the goal.
SPU would even things up just nine minutes later, though, when Sophie Beadle curled a great ball right into the top right corner of the net.
The Nighthawks were not done scoring in the first half, however, as
Madison Grande let loose a missile from outside the box and drilled it into the back of the net to put NNU up 2-1 in the 38
th minute.
NNU's defense clamped down from there, only allowing three second-half shots as they earned the victory.
Nighthawks Notes
- The Nighthawks are the first active GNAC women's soccer program not named Western Washington or Seattle Pacific to reach the conference final since 2012 (now-closed Concordia made it in 2017 and 2018)
- With a win over WWU on Saturday, NNU would earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships tournament
- NNU dominated the run of play, outshooting SPU 19-7
- Grande now has 11 goals on the year, tied for the second-most in a season in program history and two shy of the record
- NNU's 12 wins are now just one short of the program record for victories in a season (13) set in 2001
- The Nighthawks avenged a 1-0 loss at Seattle Pacific just five days ago, earning just their fourth win ever against the Falcons in 27 meetings since 2008
- NNU is now 11-0-1 this year when scoring first in the match
Next Up
As mentioned, the Nighthawks will look to win their first-ever GNAC Championships on Saturday and advance to the NCAA Tournament when they play top-seeded Western Washington at noon.