EWU 2016 soccer was memorable in so many ways

Eastern Washington's women's soccer team had a season that will go down in the history books as the best ever.

The year included milestone after milestone, most notably the school's first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament, as well as the Eagles' Big Sky Conference title. These, and numerous other parts of this season earned the team the No. 2 EWU sports story in a vote of the Cheney Free Press staff.

This special season culminated with a 3-1 loss in Los Angeles to the tournament's No. 2 seeded team, the University of Southern California, Nov. 12. But that setback did not deter third-year head coach Chad Bodnar from a very positive assessment.

"It's been great, these kids work hard and they do what they're asked," Bodnar said following the conclusion of the season that saw his Eagles finish 13-5-4. "We had such an amazing season. We want to continue to push the program forward and we took some pretty big steps this season."

This season's 13 wins is a single-season record for Eastern, breaking by one the previous best set by last year's team.

While there were many notable victories amidst those, it was, perhaps, Eastern's run through the Big Sky tournament that might stand above the rest.

A Nov. 6 win on their home field, a 2-1 shootout victory over Northern Arizona, sent them into the tournament, but not before they had a large vocal crowd on edge as the Eagles dominated play with a 19-4 edge in shots.

After NAU's Ali Lixandru gave her team a 1-0 lead late in the first half, Jenny Chavez would tie it just after halftime, in the 49th minute, converting a shot from a penalty kick and an ensuing scramble.

And that's how it remained the rest of the way, plus a pair of 10-minute overtimes. The kick from the sure foot of Lixandru sailed wide and to the right, and Eastern celebrated.

Eastern's hero, aside from M'Kenna Hayes, who hit the eventual game-winning shot in the shootout, plus other penalty kick scorers - Chloe Williams, Chavez and Laci Rennaker - was keeper Mallory Taylor, who made a critical save on the first NAU shot.

Eastern earned the slot in the final by beating Montana 1-0 on Nov. 2 on a Chloe Williams goal for their first-ever postseason victory. The Eagles followed that by toppling top-seed Idaho 1-0 two days later, when Williams hit a perfect cross to Allison Raniere who nailed the game-winning shot with just two minutes remaining.

Eastern had five players named to the Big Sky All-Tournament Team, including Williams, Chavez, Hayes, Aimie Inthoulay and Allison Raniere. Williams earned the tournament's Most Valuable Player honor. She had one goal and one assist on 12 shots in the three games.

The Eagles, who finished fifth in the regular season, earned the right to host the conference tournament when champion Idaho's field was deemed unplayable following record-setting October rainfall.

As much as the 2016 season was a team success, it was really a campaign that was driven in large part by Eastern's record-setting forward, Williams. She again made history on Nov. 1 when the Central Valley High School grad was selected as the Big Sky Conference's Offensive Player of the Year for a second-straight season. She also became the school's first-ever Big Sky Golden Boot Award winner after scoring a conference-best 14 goals this season.

Among numerous other honors, Williams, a junior, and sophomore Chavez made the 2016 NCAA Division I Women's All-Pacific Region Team. Williams was named to the second team while Chavez was selected for the third team.

Eastern loses just four seniors, most notable being Taylor, but returns both the majority of its role players on offense and defense.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.