The 2019 season is here for the Eastern Washington University women’s soccer team. The Eagles have been hard at work at fall camp preparing for the upcoming year since Aug. 6 under sixth-year head coach Chad Bodnar.
Eastern already has one exhibition under its belt, with a second and final exhibition on Aug. 17 before opening up the regular season on Aug. 22 at Nevada.
“Camp has been great for us. We got to see them play live early which was good because we have a lot of young and new faces and we got to throw them in a game situation early,” Bodnar said on his team’s camp so far. “We looked at film and saw what we needed to adjust and work on and we’ve been transitioning that into this week. Training has been good; the energy has been good and we’re healthy.”
The 2019 edition of Eastern Washington soccer is comprised of 19 returners, six of which are returning starters, and 10 fresh new faces that are all energized and ready to begin the season.
“The energy that this team brings excites me,” noted Bodnar. “They come out in the morning and afternoon and they’re excited. Usually throughout the course of a training camp, you can see the energy and effort level go down, but this group isn’t like that. They continue to keep bringing it and it’s been refreshing.”
Eastern Washington, who has won a Big Sky Conference Tournament title in two out of the last three seasons, is looking to build on a season that saw an 8-8-3 finish last year. Although the 2018 squad fell short of the goal of winning a third-straight title, the program as a whole has finished above .500 for five seasons in a row and has a standard focused around winning.
The Eagles returners include a senior class that has collected 37 wins, a Big Sky regular season title and two tournament championships during their time as Eagles, the 2019 roster is filled with several underclassmen who logged serious minutes on the pitch last season.
Although Eastern loses its leading scorer from last season in Jenny Chavez, who scored six goals for the Eagles in 2018, they return a solid number of veterans on the front line including Saige Lyons and Taylor Matheny.
Lyons scored three goals last season while Matheny scored one. Brooke Dunbar returns for her senior year after starting eight matches and scoring two goals last season and Sariah Keister returns for her junior season after starting nine games and having both one goal and one assist for the Eagles in 2018.
Sophomores Megan Drake, who also scored two goals, and Kaelyn Barnes return for the Eagles.
In the midfield, Mya Elder-Hammond returns for her sophomore season after playing in all 19 matches last season and recording an assist.
“Our midfielders show great stability. They understand the way we want to play,” Bodnar said. “Mya Elder-Hammond got thrown into the fire as a freshman and she already plays like she’s an upperclassman. She thinks like an upperclassman as well and she’s been great in our training camp.”
Joining this group are redshirt sophomore Brittany Delridge and sophomore Vanessa Jones. Delridge played in 15 matches for the Eagles scoring one goal while Jones contributed in five matches last season.
On defense, Grace Klinkenberg, a junior, returns to the starting line up along with sophomore Colby Wilson and junior McKaley Goffard. Klinkenberg competed in 18 matches for the Eagles and started in 16 while Wilson played in all 19 matches, starting in 18. Goffard played in 18 with 10 starts.
The Eagles welcome back sophomore starter Janae Lee. As a freshman, she assisted the backline at the outside back position and appeared in all 19 matches last season, starting in 17.
Brooke Asbury returns for her sophomore season after appearing in eight matches last year.
Eastern returns all three goalkeepers in Hadley Bezon, Kelsee Winston and Ryann Rydeen. Winston earned a Big Sky Player Defensive Player of the Week nod twice and appeared in 19 matches during the 2018 season while logging over 1,588 minutes in net. Winston made 76 saves and allowed 15 goals throughout her sophomore season with the Eagles.
After a busy offseason recruiting, Eastern welcomes 10 newcomers to the program, eight of which are true freshmen and two are transfers. All are expected to help the Eagles soar into the new season.
The new Eagles include midfielders Riley Walkington, Kalista Kakou, Corina Froehle and Madison Kem; forwards Maddie Morgan and Brooke Flores along with defenders Alyssa McKenzie and Elizabeth Thayer. New Eagle transfers consist of sophomore Marissa Mills from Utah Valley and junior Audrey Castillo from Ventura Community College.
In addition, midfielder Mareonna Henderson and forward Kendall Pope return after redshirting last season.
All except Thayer saw time in the first exhibition match versus Fraser Valley. Morgan found the back the back of the net twice and McKenzie scored once during the match.
After a 6-2 victory verses Fraser Valley in its first exhibition match on Aug. 9, Eastern Washington faced Grant MacEwan University at home on Aug. 17 at 1 p.m. at the EWU Soccer Field. The Griffins compete in the Canada West Conference in Alberta, Canada, along with Fraser Valley.
The regular season set to begin at Nevada on Aug. 22. The Eastern Washington University soccer team is picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky Preseason Poll after finishing sixth in the regular season last year.
“Preseason polls are what they are and I respect where we have been selected,” Bodnar said. “We have a strong group of players this year committed to doing well and aren’t worried about where we’re selected during the preseason. We’ve had a good first week of camp and I have a lot of confidence in this group. We are looking forward to getting after it for real in a couple of weeks.”
The Eagles totaled 52 points behind Idaho who had 54 points and ahead of Northern Arizona who had 47. Northern Colorado is predicted to finish first, totaling 76 points and capturing six of the 10 first-place votes. Weber State and Sacramento State also received first-place votes.
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