NAMPA, Idaho - The Northwest Nazarene women's soccer team will travel to California this week to face off against Dominican and Menlo College to begin regular season play.

The Nighthawks are coming off a hard fought exhibition win against NAIA rival College of Idaho last Tuesday. NNU was on the positive side of a 1-0 decision that saw Lucy Bergford net the only goal of the match. Senior goalkeeper Alex Barras secured three saves to record the shutout. These upcoming matches will be the first two matches where stats and results will count for the Nighthawks. 

Last season:

Last season marked the first season under Jenny Jaggard. The Nighthawks finished with an overall record of 5-11-2 and 4-8-2 in GNAC play, finishing in fifth place behind Seattle Pacific just narrowly missing the GNAC tournament. NNU averaged 0.889 goals per game while conceding 1.61 goals per game. Alex Barrass was second in the conference with 93 saves with 5.17 saves per game and fifth with a 76.9 save percentage.

NNU scored 16 goals as a team last year. Savanna Herz, Ellie Ritter, and Alexis Cromwell each had three goals which led the team. Out of those three, only one returns as Herz and Ritter graduated. Attie Jo Westbrook, Mackenzie Brown, and Kaslee Roskelley each scored two while Brianna Abo scored one a season ago. 

The Nighthawks earned three all-conference honors in 2025, with Herz earning Second-Team status and Barrass and Grace Fisher earning a spot on the Honorable Mention team.

Domincan:

Kelly Coffey enters his 11th season as head coach of Dominican and much like the Nighthawks, Dominican enters the contest without an official game played this season. The Penguins finished the 2025 season with a 9-2-9 overall record and 5-1-4 in the PacWest. Dominican finished in fourth place, qualifying for the PacWest tournament. The Penguins upset the No. 1 seeded Azusa Pacific Cougars, 3-0 in penalty kicks before falling to the No. 3 seeded Point Loma Sea Lions 2-1 in double-overtime. 

The 2025 squad scored 29 goals while only giving up 15. They scored 1.45 goals per game and only gave up 0.75 goals per game. They were led by senior PacWest Player of the Year, Megan Clapinski, with nine goals and three assists in 2025 while Janae Schwan scored four. Schwan returns for the Penguins along side Ashlyn Hill who scored three goals last season. Michelle Salas Viniegra returns in goal after playing in 15 games, starting 14 of them. Salas Viniegra recorded 48 saves with an 81.4 save percentage. 

Dominican saw four players earn all-conference honors including Clapinski who was named the Player of the Year. Jane Schwan earned first team honors, while Ashlynn Hill was named to the second team, and Tahlia Smith earned third-team honors. Out of those four, three return to San Rafael for another season. 

All-time vs Dominican:

NNU is 4-1 all-time against Dominican and have won three straight. The last time these two faced was Sept. 12, 206 where NNU came away with a 4-1 win in Nampa. The last win for Dominican was a 1-0 win in 2012 with the earliest recorded match going back to 2001 where Northwest Nazarene won, 3-1.

Menlo:

The Oaks open their regular season against NNU after three scrimmages. Menlo finished the 2025 season with a 3-6-7 overall record and 1-4-5 in conference play, finishing in ninth place behind Fresno Pacific and ahead of Chaminade. 

Menlo scored 33 goals last season and averaged 2.06 goals per game. They conceded 22 goals with 1.38 goals per game. They were led by senior Kaylin Gonzalez with six goals followed by fellow senior Haley Dunham with five. The Oaks lost their starter in goal as Giorgia Melcore graduated after playing in 15 games, starting in 14 of them tallying 57 saves with a 74.0 save percentage. 

All-time vs Menlo:

This is the first meeting between Northwest Nazarene and Menlo College.