Friday, November 18, 2016

HS Update: Five Washington State semifinals all-509 affairs - Updated!

In five of the six Final Four events this weekend in the Washington State high school championships, one of the semifinals will feature a pair of schools from eastern Washington squaring off for the chance to play in the state championship match Saturday.     **Updated Info Below**

Friday, November 11, 2016

INWsn College Postseason Central


  • Central Washington wins in Regional debut

Championship season for college soccer is underway. All but the DI men kick off national tournament play this weekend for the NCAA. The NWAC championships are down to the Final Four this weekend as well. The NAIA brackets will be announced Monday along with the NCAA-DI Men's bracket.

Central Washington University kicked things off on Thursday with their first-ever West Regionals match, topping league foe Seattle Pacific University 2-1 (more info below).

The rest of the tournaments are in full swing for area teams on Friday. Here's a rundown by division (times Pacific).

**Bookmark to return for updates.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Big Sky Tonight 11.6.16: Eastern Washington wins Big Sky title in penalties


It could have been one of the most heartbreaking endings ever. Eastern Washington thoroughly dominated Sunday afternoon in Cheney against Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Championship match only to find themselves trailing after a penalty and ultimately needing the shootout tiebreaker to claim the program's first-ever league championship and NCAA Tournament berth.

After giving up a penalty in the first half, EWU tied things up early in the second period and went the distance even at 1-1, sending the game to a shootout. In the tiebreaker, the Eagles prevailed 4-3 to claim the Big Sky Championship as the league's fifth seed, though they were among the league leaders before going 1-3-1 in their final five of the season.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

NWAC East Tonight 11.5.16: Sasquatch sweep, NIC women advance to Final Four


In Saturday's quarterfinal action, three of the remaining four NWAC East teams advanced to next weekend's Final Four events at the Starfire Complex in Tukwila, WA. The Spokane women took care of business with a comfortable 2-0 win against Lane while the men drubbed Edmonds 5-0. On the road, the North Idaho women took a last-minute 2-1 decision at Clark and Walla Walla fell 5-0 to Peninsula.

The Cardinals are the lone lower seed remaining in the women's bracket with top seeds Peninsula (North) and Highline (West) moving onto the Final Four along with Spokane. Top seeds were not as fortunate in the men's tournament where two teams were knocked out Saturday - both in penalties. West three-seed Pierce, which surprised North Idaho 1-0 Wednesday, knocked Chemeketa out in the tiebreaker West two-seed Tacoma eliminated Peninsula in spot kicks, making the men's Final Four Spokane versus the three teams from the West Division.

Big Sky Round-Up 11.6.16: Eastern faces NAU in Big Sky Final after edging Idaho


Both lower seeds prevailed in the 2016 Big Sky Semifinal contests Friday in Cheney with the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks and unofficial host Eastern Washington Eagles advancing to the championship game at noon Sunday.

The Big Sky Semifinals on Friday were two completely contrasting contests as the morning meeting between third-seeded Northern Arizona and second-seeded Sacramento State was a back-and-forth five-goal affair while the afternoon showdown of local foes Eastern Washington, seeded fifth, and regular season champion Idaho was narrow match decided on a late goal.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Big Sky Round-Up 11.4.16: Eastern edges Montana, face Vandals in semis Friday


Eastern Washington avenged their 3-2 overtime home loss from just five days earlier against the University of Montana with a narrow 1-0 victory on a first half goal from Chloe Williams in the second match of the opening round doubleheader. In the first, Northern Arizona knocked out the defending tournament champion Northern Colorado with a 2-1 result.

The results set NAU up against Sacramento State and the Eagles up against local foe and top seed University of Idaho, which will be looking to avenge their lone loss of the Big Sky campaign.

In their previous match, Delaney Romero scored in the first half of the match for EWU and Elexis Schlossarek tied it up with a penalty in the 86th to send the match to overtime where Eastern won 2-1 on a Williams penalty 10 minutes in. The loss ended the Vandals' 11-game unbeaten run in the Big Sky. Since then, though, the Vandals are back on another run with a streak of 6-0-2, repeating as Big Sky regular season champions with a record of 7-1-2.

In the other semifinal, the match-up where their previous meeting left off as the Hornets and Lumberjacks finished even at 1-1 in Arizona. Lindsay Doyle scored for the Jacks at home in the sixth minute with an own goal putting Sac State level in the second half. That meeting, like EWU-Idaho's, also came on the second gameday of the Big Sky season. Since that game, Sacramento State has gone 5-2-1 and NAU went 4-2-2.

First Round Recaps...

Thursday, November 3, 2016

HS DAILY - 11.3.16: Quick bracket, schedule update

Editorial Note: Due to the high amount of games (college and HS) I have been attending this past week and an illness I have been fighting through, a full HS Update will come later this week. Until then, here are the updated brackets along with today's schedule. Don't forget to follow on Twitter and Instagram for updates on these games!  @INWsoccernews for both

NWAC East Tonight 11.2.16: NIC, Walla Walla women advance; men eliminated


It was a day of glory and defeat for both North Idaho College, seeded second in both, and Walla Walla CC, the third seeds, on the opening day of the NWAC postseason tournament. The women's sides for both programs advanced with shutout victories while the men were ousted in tight contests.

The NIC ladies rolled against an undermanned Green River side that wilted in the second half, 3-0, while the Warrior women slipped past second-seeded Tacoma, which was 11-3-0 in their division, with a 1-0 road win. On the men's side Walla Walla was knocked out via a shootout after a 1-1 draw at Tacoma while North Idaho was bounced on a second half goal by visiting Pierce.

Walla Walla was the lone three seed to advance in the women's tournament while Pierce and Edmonds advanced with road wins in the men's tourney.

Spokane, which swept the regular season titles and received byes, will take the pitch on Saturday versus second round winners with Lane visiting the women at 1:00 and Edmonds facing the men at 4:00.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

NWAC East Recap 11.1.16: NIC earns men's second seed; Bigfoot women finish unbeaten


As the postseason kicks off Wednesday, here's a quick look back at Saturday's regular season finales as well as updated stats and the postseason schedules.

The only item left to be determined for the postseason out of the East was the men's seeding for spots two and three between North Idaho College and Walla Walla. North Idaho picked up a key win to pull even in the table and thanks to a victory by division champion Spokane over Walla Walla, the Cardinals took the second spot based on having swept the season series against the Warriors with three identical 2-1 scorelines.

On the women's side, the highlight of the day was Spokane finishing their campaign unbeaten. At 13-0-1, they were one of three teams - with Peninsula (15-0-0) and Clark (11-0-1) - to finish their division slates without a loss, but the Bigfoot stand alone as the only team to finish the entire campaign without a defeat at 17-0-4.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

HS DAILY - 11.1.16: MCC took 5 of 6 in Saturday playoff contests, penalties deciding three


Gonzaga Prep picked up the first victory of the day Saturday of the six GSL-MCC match-ups in 3A and 4A action, but after that things were tough for the Greater Spokane League. The MCC won the other five contests, two of them in shootouts and another in a narrow one-goal decision on a late shot from the spot as well.

Things were not surprisingly - based on regular season - one-sided in the 3A classification contests. Kamiakin rolled to a 5-1 win over Mt Spokane while Southridge drubbed North Central 7-0.

The interesting matches were at the 4A level. In the elimination portion of the bracket Gonzaga Prep took care of business with a 6-0 win against visiting Walla Walla while Lewis & Clark and Richland battled to a scoreless draw that saw the Bombers advance 4-2 from the spot. In another shootout, Chiawana advanced to the regional final after trailing Mead and playing to a 1-1 draw. Down south, a late penalty sent Central Valley to the elimination bracket as well as they were topped 3-2 by Hanford.

Here's a look around the action from Saturday...