#21 WSU Travels to Berkeley to Face Cal
#21/20 WASHINGTON STATE (8-1-2, 2-0-1)
vs CALIFORNIA (6-3-3, 1-2-0)
Thursday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.
Berkeley, Calif. | Edwards Stadium
Live Video | Cal Live Stream
Live Stats | StatBroadcast
OPENING XI
I. #21 WSU travels to Berkeley to face Cal at 3 p.m. Thursday at Edwards Stadium... WSU has won 3-straight matches against the Golden Bears dating back to 2018
II. Wazzu and Cal last met Oct. 2021 in Pullman...the Cougs won 2-0 when Sydney Pulver and Elyse Bennett scored, while Sydney Studer tallied an assist on Bennett's goal
III. Coach Todd Shulenberger earned his 89th career win, Sunday versus Utah to become WSU's all-time wins leader, passing former coach Matt Potter at 88 wins
IV. WSU is unbeaten in 10-straight matches for the first time since starting the 2018 season with 10-straight wins...that team advanced to the NCAA Second Round
V. Mykiaa Minniss started her 84th career match Sunday vs Utah, moving her into 4th all-time in career matches started at WSU, excluding GKs
VI. Margie Detrizio tallied her team-leading 5th assist Sunday vs Utah...Detrizio leads the team with 19 points and is tied for 4th in the conference for assists
VII. Grayson Lynch scored her 4th goal of the season Sunday vs Utah, marking her 15th career goal and sixth game-winning goal as a Coug
VIII. Goalkeeper Nadia Cooper picked up her 18th career win Sunday vs Utah, moving her into a tie for 6th on WSU's all-time GK wins list
IX. The Cougs are outshooting opponents 255-75, averaging 23.18 shots per game, good for 3rd nationally and just behind Stanford atop the Pac-12
X. Detrizio leads the Pac-12 in shots on frame (2.54), which is 5th nationally
XI. WSU's average home attendance of 1,178 fans per game ranks 16th nationally
COUGARS VS GOLDEN BEARS
Washington State travels to northern California to face the Cal Golden Bears, Thursday, Oct. 6 in Berkeley. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. California holds a 12-16-3 advantage in the series history, but the Cougs have won 3-straight against the Golden Bears. The programs last met Oct. 10, 2021 in Pullman when senior Elyse Bennett and Sydney Pulver scored to secure a 2-0 WSU victory. Then-senior Sydney Studer assisted on Bennett's goal in the 54th minute. Since arriving on the Palouse, Coach Todd Shulenberger is 3-3 against Cal, having won the last three matchups.
SHULENBERGER BREAKS WSU ALL-TIME WINS RECORD
With Sunday's win over Utah, WSU Head Coach Todd Shulenberger earned his 89th career victory to become the all-time wins leader in Cougar coaching history. Shulenberger surpassed former coach Matt Potter, who put together 88 wins over nine seasons in Pullman. Shulenberger also holds the second-best win percentage in program history. In his career, he has a .654 win percentage.
NATIONAL RANKING RETURNS
For the second-consecutive week, the Cougars are ranked in the national coaches poll published by United Soccer Coaches. The Cougs are ranked No. 21 in the country entering this weekend, after starting the season #20 in the USC Coaches' Preseason Poll. WSU also jumped into the TopDrawerSoccer.com poll at No. 20 in the country. Washington State is one of four nationally-ranked Pac-12 programs, behind No. 1 UCLA, No. 8 Southern Cal, and No. 14 Stanford. In the most recent RPI rankings put out by the NCAA, WSU is No. 23 with four past or upcoming opponents in the top 25 and an additional three upcoming Pac-12 opponents in the RPI top-50.
OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER CARRYING COUGS
So far this season, Wazzu has scored 24 goals (2.2 per game) from 11 different Cougars, led by Margie Detrizio with seven goals. The Cougs are outshooting opponents 255-75 and the average of 23.2 shots per game ranks third nationally and second only to Stanford in the Pac-12. WSU is putting shots on frame at a 36.1 % clip (92-of-255) and have limited opponents to just 31 total shots on target (2.8 per game). Washington State is one of 18 programs in the country with 10 different goal scorers and 10 different players with an assist. When the Cougs welcomed Colorado to Pullman at the end of September, they put 39 shots up on the Buffs, the most since last season's home opener against Arkansas State, and tied for 4th-most shot attempts in a single match in school history.
UNBEATEN STREAK CONTINUES
Since beginning the season with a loss at then-No. 17 Michigan, the Cougars have been unbeaten in the last 10 matches, dating back to the home-opener tie against Portland, Aug. 25. Since then, the Cougars have scored 23 goals (2.3 per match) from 11 different goal-scorers, outscoring opponents 23-7 over the month-long unbeaten streak. The 10-game run marks the longest unbeaten streak since the 2018 Cougar side won the first 10 games of the season, finishing the year in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. If the Cougs remain undefeated following Thursday's match versus Cal, they would become the first WSU team to put together an 11-game unbeaten streak in a single season.
DETRIZIO DOMINATION
Margie Detrizio leads the Cougs this season with 19 points. As the team's top goal scorer (7 goals) and assist leader (5 assists), Detrizio is 6th in the Pac-12 in goals scored and tied for 4th in the conference in assists. She is the first Coug with a 6-game point streak since WSU Hall of Famer Kiersten Dallstream tallied points in 6-straight games in fall 2009. Twice this season, Detrizio has scored multi-goal games, becoming just the sixth Cougar in program history with three multi-goal matches in their career, and the first since Carly Dobratz from 2006-09. Detrizio has a knack for finding the frame, as the Pac-12's leader in shots on goal with 2.55 per game, which is 5th nationally. She is currently 6th in the Pac-12 in goals scored, and the Chandler, Ariz., native is also leading the conference with 4.73 shots per game and ranks 5th nationally.
CAREER COUG MYKIAA MINNISS
With her 84th career start Thursday against Colorado, fifth-year senior Mykiaa Minniss passed former teammate Elyse Bennett to become 4th all-time in WSU career matches started, excluding goalkeepers. Minniss has started every single match of her Cougar career. If Minniss starts all the regular-season matches this year, she would finish as WSU's all-time career starts leader with 92, besting former teammate Sydney Pulver, who finished her career with 91 starts in Crimson & Gray.
COOPER RE-WRITING WSU RECORD BOOK
Sophomore goalkeeper Nadia Cooper is no stranger to re-writing the WSU record book, this season setting her sights on the career goalkeeping lists. With the Cougs' win versus Utah last Sunday, Cooper earned her 18th career win, moving into a tie for 6th all-time in WSU career wins. Cooper also picked up her fourth complete cleansheet of the season last Sunday versus Utah, earning her 11th-career shutout and a tie for 6th on WSU's all-time goalkeeper shutout list. Cooper has spent all but 15 minutes of the 2022 season in goal, bringing her career total to 2,433 minutes in goal, 10th-most in program history.
LYNCH BACK WITH A BANG
Senior forward Grayson Lynch hopes to continue a strong run of form from last season. She notched her fourth goal of the 2022 campaign, Sunday, Oct. 2 versus Utah. Lynch has scored two goals from outside the penalty area. When she scored Sunday, Sept. 11 against Cal Poly, Lynch became the 22nd Cougar in program history with a 3-game goal streak.
MARGIE & MYKIAA DYNAMIC ASSIST DUO
Mykiaa Minniss and Margie Detrizio have each put together a 3-game assist streak this season. Minniss recorded an assist in three-straight game from Aug. 28 vs Eastern Washington, through the Sept. 4 contest against Denver. Detrizio went on her own 3-game assist streak, between the Sept. 1 game at Seattle and the Sept. 11 victory versus Cal Poly.
STUDER'S LAST-MINUTE STUNNER
Junior Jenna Studer scored the first goal of her Cougar career Sunday, Sept. 1 at Seattle, netting the game-winning goal with 47 seconds left in the game. It was Studer's second-career collegiate goal and the first game-winner of her career.
HOME SWEET HOME
Lower Soccer Field has become something of a fan-fortress for the Cougs. In 2021, the team drew an average of 1,238 fans per match, the highest season average in program history. This season's home opener against Portland drew the fourth-largest crowd in program history with 2,408 fans in attendance. This season, Wazzu is averaging 1,178 fans per game through six matches, good for 16th in the country.
SISTER DUOS POWERING NCAA SOCCER
When junior Jenna Studer transferred to Pullman, she joined her sister and fifth-year senior Sydney on the Cougar roster. The duo are one of 50 sets of sisters playing on the same team in Division-I soccer this season. The Cougs also have junior Marin Whieldon with older sister Shayna serving as the team's coordinator of operations. Wazzu is one of just 10 programs in the country with two sister pairings and the only known D-I program with a staff-athlete sister combination.
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