MALIBU, California — The #25 Pepperdine women's soccer team remains in the hunt for a third consecutive West Coast Conference title, but the Waves' final regular-season road trip is going to be a challenging one with games at Gonzaga and Portland this weekend.
With three matches to go, the Waves are in third place at 13 points (4-1-1) and trail both BYU and Santa Clara (15 each), although Pepperdine has beaten both of them.
MATCH #17 — Friday (October 26) at Luger Field in Spokane, Washington: Pepperdine (9-6-1, 4-1-1) at Gonzaga (8-4-3, 3-2-1) at 7 p.m.
MATCH #18 — Sunday (October 28) at Merlo Field in Portland, Oregon: Pepperdine at Portland (10-7, 3-3, hosts LMU on Friday) at 1 p.m.
WATCH/ONLINE — Friday's game at Gonzaga will be televised by ESPNU. Trey Bender and Lori Lindsey are the broadcasters. Sunday's game at Portland can be seen on TheW.tv. Links to broadcasts and live stats can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
OPPONENTS — Pepperdine is 18-5-2 all-time against Gonzaga and is unbeaten in the last seven meetings (6-0-1). The Waves are 7-3-2 in Spokane. The Bulldogs' last win in the series came at home in 2010. The Waves have outscored the Bulldogs 13-0 over the last three years, including a 4-0 home win last year that included a
Brie Welch goal ... Pepperdine is 6-16-2 all-time against Portland but is unbeaten in the last four meetings (3-0-1). The Waves are 2-9-1 all-time in Portland but won there in 2014 and tied 0-0 in 2016. The Waves won 4-0 at home last season with
Calista Reyes and Welch scoring two of the goals.
LAST WEEK — With the Waves trailing 1-0 at home in the second half of a PCH Cup rivalry game to Loyola Marymount on Saturday,
Calista Reyes scored her first two goals of the season in the 69th and 74th minutes. The Waves outshot LMU 13-3.
NOTABLE — The Waves reentered the United Soccer Coaches national rankings this week, appearing for the first time since the preseason ... A 10th victory would give the Waves double-digit wins for the third straight year, seven times in the last eight years and the 18th time overall ... All four of
Joelle Anderson's goals this season have been game-winners and she's tied for third in the WCC in that category ...
Brielle Preece is first in the WCC at 0.43 shutouts per game and third in goals-against average (1.03) ... In the WCC team rankings, Pepperdine is tied for first in shutouts (seven) and second in goals-against average (0.99) ... The Waves are 8-1-1 in the last 10 games and have only given up four goals in that time ... Twelve players have missed at least one game due to injury, eight of which have started a game this season ... Pepperdine has had nine players make their first career starts, and 10 of the 27 players that have seen action have been true freshmen or redshirt freshmen ... The Waves are assured of a winning record at home for the 26th time in the program's 26-year history.
NEXT — Pepperdine closes out the regular season at home with its Senior Day game against San Diego next Saturday (November 3).
