STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific women's soccer team (6-3-1) will travel for a road non-conference match at #13 Santa Clara (6-2-2) at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24. It's the final non-conference match for both teams before they begin WCC play. The two teams plus Saint Mary's are second in the WCC in wins with six. #21 Gonzaga leads the conference in victories with a 7-1-1 record.
The Tigers and Broncos started a non-conference series last year with Pacific upsetting Santa Clara, 2-0, in Stockton. This is the return game of the series.
Santa Clara will play at Pacific in the WCC match at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 as a featured event in the Homecoming and Family Weekend Celebration schedule.
Santa Clara, the defending WCC champion, had a 6-0 start on the season before ties with California and Cal Poly followed by a 1-0 loss to #3 Stanford and a 3-0 setback to San Francisco in another non-conference match against a WCC opponent. The Broncos, who have been ranked as high as eighth in the national poll this season, dropped one spot this week to #13 after the loss to Stanford, which moved to #2.
Both Pacific and Santa Clara have wins over Oregon State this season.
Sunday's match is the only contest this week for the Tigers. Last week, Pacific had a win over Fresno State, 3-0, at home and a loss at Cal Poly, 3-1. The Tigers finished the home portion of the non-conference season with a 4-0-1 mark and now have a 15-match unbeaten streak in non-conference home games (10-0-5), extending back to the 2020 season. It's the third straight season that Pacific has not lost a non-conference home match.
Five Tigers have two or more goals this season. Fifth-year senior
Jaida Nyby leads the team and ranks third in the WCC with seven goals. Sophomore
Alexis Pashales has five; fifth-year senior
Lauren Frohan and sophomore
Anaya Shelton have four each; and sophomore
Haley Johnson has two tallies. Pacific is second in the WCC in scoring at 2.4 goals per game.
After the road trip to Santa Clara, Pacific will return home to prepare for the WCC opener at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30 against Portland (5-1-2). It will be Youth Soccer Night, and the Tigers will sign autographs after the match.
