A perfect season in any sport is an elusive holy grail. In soccer, with its sometimes mischievous way of letting luck determine outcomes, the feat is especially rare. "You can outplay a team and still lose," says Seattle Pacific women's soccer coach Chuck Sekyra.
But Sekyra's Lady Falcons were perfect. After a 2-1 win at conference rival Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, SPU finished its regular season with a sparkling 20-0-0 record and is ranked second in the nation.
"I'm so proud of this team," Sekyra said after the match. "They gave everything they had in every game, and they never looked past things."
This weekend the SPU women will see if they can carry their spotless record through the NCAA tournament and win a national championship. The team, ranked first in the West, earned the right to host the NCAA West Regional.
Squad veterans have stood on the brink before: The 2005 Lady Falcons went 20-1-4, narrowly losing the championship match in overtime.
The West Regional, at Interbay Stadium at 17th and Dravus, pits SPU against the region's best, with matches set for Nov. 8, 10 and 15. As top seed, SPU has a first-round bye and will play Saturday, Nov. 10, against the winner of a Nov. 8 match.
Other teams likely to make the regional include crosstown rival Seattle University (16-3), UC San Diego (12-2-2) and Cal. State LA and Cal. State Chico (both 12-5-1). The California schools have undergraduate enrollments four and five times that of SPU's 3,000.
SPU's final regular-season win was characteristic of its team-first ap-proach. The winning goal, with two minutes to go, was scored by freshman forward Amanda Johnson on a feed by senior co-captain Kara Hamby. It was only Johnson's second goal of the year and Hamby's first assist.
During its season at the top, SPU notched some key individual goals. Senior co-captain Sarah Martinez became the school and Great Northwest Athletic Conference career leader in goals with 46, 16 of them this season. She also holds school and conference record for overall points (goals plus assists) at 115.
SPU also placed four players on the region's all-academic team, led by junior psychology major Claire Grubbs (Sterling, Va.), with a 3.95 GPA. Grubbs was part of a stout defense - including Katie Taylor, co-captain Jeanne Webster, Becca Woods, Kayla Stiegemeier and Jessica Gerstmann - that limited opponents to a stingy 4.8 shots per game and just 10 goals over 20 games. SPU notched 52 goals and had 18.8 shots per game over the season.
Midfielders Shannon Oakes and Meredith Teague led the team in assists, with 13 and 9, respectively.
Queen Anne and Magnolia folks who appreciate amateur sports and solid team play can celebrate SPU's extraordinary season by coming out Saturday to cheer the team on to continued success and maybe - just maybe - a national championship.
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