PROVO, Utah – No. 6 BYU women’s soccer begins its title defense of the past three West Coast Conference championships with a two-game road trip to the Pacific Northwest.
The Cougars (8-1-1) open WCC play against Gonzaga (1-5-4) on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. PDT. The game can be seen on TheW.tv and will be broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network, ESPN 960 AM, BYU Radio and on Sirius XM 143.
On Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. PDT, BYU faces Portland (4-6-0) at Merlo Field. The game will also be seen on TheW.tv and can be heard on the Cougar IMG Sports Network, ESPN 960 AM, BYU Radio and Sirius XM 143.
BYU comes off a week where they tied Cal Poly 1-1 on the road before beating Long Beach State 2-1 on Saturday to close out the nonconference schedule. Michele Murphy Vasconcelos was named WCC Player of the Week for her two assists against the 49ers.
To this point of the season, BYU’s defense is one of the top defenses in the nation. The Cougars are second in save percentage, third in goals against average and seventh in shutout percentage. The offense has been productive as well. BYU is ninth in the nation in shots and Hermann Trophy candidate Ashley Hatch leads the nation in shots. Overall, the 8-1-1 record is the 13th highest winning percentage in the nation to go along with several top 10 rankings and holding on to the No. 4 spot in the RPI.
Gonzaga has only beat Cal State Bakersfield so far this season and has found three of its ties at home. The Bulldogs did draw with Cal State Fullerton, Utah State and Washington over the past few weeks. They lost to Memphis in overtime on Saturday. Gonzaga has been outscored 7-1 in the first half this season, but has still found a way to get six games into overtime.
Portland has won two games in a row after starting the season 1-4-0. The Pilots have beat Marquette, UC Irvine, Washington State and Denver, while they lost to major conference teams Washington, Illinois, Michigan, Notre Dame and Oregon State.