Congratulations to the Eastern Washington soccer team

The Eastern Washington University soccer team has been making history throughout their whole season. But the Eagles just topped it off with a Big Sky Championship title for the second year in a row proving that EWU is fortunate to have successful sports even outside of football.

I have been covering the team from the Sports Information Department at EWU and it has been an exciting experience to be part of such a successful team and to see their hard work pay off.

I think that head coach Chad Bodnar has turned around the soccer program at Eastern and deserves a lot of the credit for the success of our team. Statistics prove alone that with his 49-23-5 overall record while going 24-11-5 in the Big Sky, which includes this year’s 16-5-1 record.

The team has broken almost all the school records possible this year including most wins, shutouts and goals in a single season.

Senior forward Chloe Williams, a Lewis and Clark High School graduate, has also shattered every school scoring record in previous seasons. But with her success in her senior year, she is now the holder in the Big Sky with most career goals (43) and points (107). I guess what I am trying to say is that Cheney and the EWU campus should all be proud and excited for our soccer team.

This year, they won the tournament as the No. 1 seed after they had previously earned the regular season champion title. Last year, they won the tournament as the No. 5 seed as they upset Montana, Idaho and Northern Arizona.

Even though it was a freezing and snowy experience, watching the team win the championship was worth the work and effort that was put into hosting the tournament in Cheney.

With their success, the team earns a bid into the NCAA Division I Tournament and will play the University of Southern California – again. Eastern took on the Trojans last year as well in the first ever trip to the tourney, falling 3-1. The game this year will be on Nov. 11, at noon in Los Angeles.

Even though the reaction to playing the same opponent two years in a row was a little mixed, it could be a positive thing for the Eagles as now they will know almost exactly what to expect. Even last year, EWU was one of only two teams able to score on USC throughout the entire tournament as the Trojans were the eventual National Champions.

The Eagles have proved themselves to be a superior soccer team throughout the entire season with going 8-1-1 in the Big Sky. The team also had a big win over local foe Gonzaga and won its first game against an Ivy League school, at Cornell, earlier in the season.

So while we are all listening or watching the football game at North Dakota on Saturday, we should also send some good vibes to our successful soccer team that have a good chance to make even more history in the national championship this year.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].