Women's Soccer Game of the Week preview: Washington State at Washington

Who: Washington State at Washington

When: Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Washington, with Ann Schatz and Kyndra de St. Aubin on the call.

The women’s soccer regular season concludes with rivalry games in the Pac-12, and a shot at claiming a share of third place is on the line for these NCAA tourney hopefuls.

The Story so Far: Washington State (13-5-0, 6-4-0 Pac-12)

The Cougars bounced back from a three-game losing skid by sweeping the Oregon schools on the road, taking down both the Ducks and Beavers with scores of 2-1 in each thanks to a 50^th-minute penalty kick from Kailiana Johnson against the Ducks and an 86^th-minute strike by Beau Bremer to avoid overtime against the Beavs. As such, the Cougs have clinched a winning conference record for the fifth consecutive season and find themselves currently in a tie for fourth with Cal at 18 points. With a loss, Washington State would finish no worse than sixth and could finish in all alone in third if it beats the Dawgs, while Arizona and Cal either earn draws or lose their respective matches against Arizona State and Stanford.

Either way, the Cougs are looking at a surefire fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. Every team that finished with a winning conference record in Pac-12 play last year made it to the NCAA postseason, and 13 wins and a No. 30 RPI are more than enough for the Cougs to play beyond Thursday. This game is about getting right for the postseason, equaling the program record for wins in a season, completing a perfect road slate in conference play (the Cougs are 8-1 overall on the road and 5-0 in Pac-12 contests away from Pullman) and, of course, beating the rival Dawgs.

The Story so Far: Washington (12-5-2, 5-4-1 Pac-12)

A loss in Eugene was far from the desired result last time out, but the Huskies are also sitting pretty for an NCAA tournament bid – no Pac-12 team with 12 wins has missed the NCAA tournament from the 2007 campaign on. Combine that with an RPI ranking of 40 (six at-large teams in last year’s tourney had an RPI of 40 or worse, including a couple of teams in the 50s), and Washington should feel pretty confident about playing next weekend.

Having all but wrapped up a third NCAA tournament berth in the last four seasons, the Huskies can climb as high as a tie for third if Arizona and Cal lose in addition to a Washington triumph Thursday night. The lowest the Huskies can fall is into a tie for sixth with UCLA and/or Arizona State if those schools win and Washington loses.

But you can throw all those scenarios aside – it’s Senior Night on Montlake, and Allyson Brahs, Tori Burns, Katey Fawcett, McKenzie Karas and Megan Kufeld want to make sure they win their last regular-season home match.

Three Players to Watch: Washington State

1. #14 Beau Bremer (Forward, Redshirt Senior) – Since Bremer arrived on the Palouse, the Cougs started winning – as a fifth-year senior, you could say she’s part of the two winningest classes in Wazzu women’s soccer history (the 2014 and 2015 classes). After scoring a late game-winner against the Beavs, Bremer is fourth on the Cougars with three goals and nine points and tied for third with three assists.
2. #16 Grace Hancock (Defender, Freshman) – TopDrawerSoccer.com listed Hancock as the 30^th-best freshman in the nation for her work on the back line, as she has helped the Cougs concede two goals in just two conference contests (and never more than two). She also has a goal, striking in the season opener against Seattle.
3. #20 Kourtney Guetlein (Forward, Senior) – With an assist in her last game against Oregon State, Guetlein became the second player in Cougar history to tally 20 career assists. If she gets on a roll and Washington State makes a deep postseason run, she could surpass record-holder Beth Childs (23 assists). Guetlein is tied for the team lead with six goals and second with 16 points and four assists.

Three Players to Watch: Washington

1. #1 Megan Kufeld (Goalkeeper, Senior) – She is the program record holder for career shutouts (21) and goals against average (the only Husky to have a career sub-1.00 GAA), but she doesn’t give much thought to those numbers according to this article by Mason Kelley of GoHuskies.com on Kufeld. She might not think much about stats, but the numbers show she’s very good at her job.
2. #23 McKenzie Karas (Defender, Senior) – Kelley provides some good details on Karas (aka “Jammer”) in this feature, one in which he notes that Karas is an anchor of the defense and helps jump-start the attack with her passes from the back line. The former Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week does have a goal this year, scoring against Utah in a 2-0 Husky victory.
3. #15 Shannon Simon (Midfielder, Sophomore) – The Husky offense should be fine for years to come with Simon in town. She leads the team with seven goals, five assists and 19 points, providing the equalizer and game-winning assist in a double-overtime win at Oregon State.

Three Notes to Know

1. Cougar control – For teams that have had similar levels of success in recent memory, this is kind of a shocking stat – Washington hasn’t defeated Washington State since 2003 and is 0-7-4 in that stretch. The teams played to a draw in Pullman last season, and Washington State leads the all-time series 11-7-6.
2. Wazzu knows how to hold a lead – Re-using a note from the Washington State-Stanford Game of the Week, but it still holds true – the Cougars now have a 33-match win streak when leading at halftime. Washington State hasn’t lost when leading at halftime in five years (Oct. 29, 2010 at USC).
3. Kufeld climbing up the saves ladder – Washington goalkeeper Megan Kufeld has 254 career saves (10 in 2012, 88 in 2013, 87 in 2014, 69 so far in 2015), which is good for third all-time in program history. She’s not going to surpass Hope Solo for the top spot (the USWNT netminder had 325 stops in her UW career) but could certainly get by Kelsey Rasmussen (269 saves from 2003-06) for second place (not that Kufeld would care about it).