By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

SEATTLE – In a clash of Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's soccer titans on Saturday at Interbay Stadium it was No. 7 Western Washington emerging with a 1-0 win over Seattle Pacific to claim its record seventh GNAC Championships tournament title.
 
GNAC Championships MVP Olivia Connell guided her team to its second straight tournament shutout and freshman Madeline Mays scored the championship-winning goal in the 71st minute, helping the Vikings win their record seventh conference tournament trophy. “We have been waiting three years for this,” said Connell. “This one means a lot to me and this team means a lot to me.”
 
It marked the seventh time that WWU and SPU met in the championship match, with the Vikings beating the Falcons in the decisive contest for the fourth time. WWU, which has played in all 14 of the GNAC Championships title contests, improved to 7-4-3 all-time in the finals and won its first crown since the 2022 tournament. “It has a nice ring to it – ‘champions.’ These things are hard to win, especially when you are playing a good, well-coached team like SPU on their home field,” said GNAC Coach of the Year Travis Connell. “They gave us everything that we could handle today, and a lot of credit goes to the character of that group. In the end we got it done, and these players stepped up in big moments. These intense games get decided in just a few moments, and our players recognized those today and made plays.”
 
Western Washington, which wrapped up its conference-record 12th regular-season championship a week ago, improved to 16-2-3 on the season with the victory and secured the conference’s automatic berth into next week’s NCAA West Region Championships. The Vikings avenged three consecutive GNAC Championships finals defeats coming at the hands of Simon Fraser the last three years. “We have experienced it all,” senior captain and all-tournament selection Mie Cairns said. “We have had hardships in the final, so to actually win it is the cherry on top. We have such a great team with so many new people – we kind of just pulled through and got the win today.”
 
Freshman Blake Francis, who earned all-tournament recognition, was featured in two of the match’s most important moments. The first came offensively as she set up Mays’ goal with a well-calculated pass into the left corner of the field. From there, Triya Mitchell took a touch and provided service into a dangerous spot near the six-yard box. Mays all the while lurked near the edge of the 18-yard box, and when the clearance found its way to her foot she took a touch past a defender and punched a high shot just under the crossbar and into the back of the net. “We needed it – there were not a lot of clear-cut, good chances for us throughout the match,” Coach Connell said on the game-winner. “SPU made it really tough. That (play) is straight from training, and they executed it perfectly.”
 
Francis’s number would be called upon once again in the final minutes of the match, as she intuitively raced to the goal line to clear an SPU shot just before it rolled across. With the net open inside a jumbled goal box, the Falcons appeared to have equalized before Francis’s last-second intervention. “We couldn’t have done it without her,” Connell said on her fellow defender Francis. “She has been such a great addition to the back line. We work really well together and I’m excited to keep playing more with her.”
 
The Vikings out-shot the Falcons 21-12 in the match, with WWU goalkeeper Ellie McGowan making three important saves to pick up her 16th shutout of the campaign. Connell was the lone Viking field player who stayed on the pitch all 180 minutes during her team’s two victories, and she converted a game-winning penalty kick in Thursday’s 1-0 triumph over Central Washington. Connell became the sixth Viking to earn tournament MVP honors, joining Kristin Maris (2012), Caitlyn Jobanek (2015), Gabriela Pelogi (2016), Karli White (2017 & 2019) and Morgan Manalili. She is the first defender to win the award in the 14-year history of the conference tournament.
 
“This win feels amazing,” said senior Jane Hmura. “We have all put in blood, sweat and tears into this team and into this program the past three years. It feels great getting the championship out of this.”
 
Seattle Pacific moved to 11-6-3 with Saturday’s defeat, coming inches away from equalizing and playing the Vikings tough for the full 90 minutes. After a spirited penalty-kick shootout win over Simon Fraser on Thursday, SPU nearly got the scoring started in the opening five minutes of the match when an open header attempt by Natalie Carroll carried just wide of the left goal post. Senior captain Andie Buckley placed both of her shot attempts on frame and Haley Teofilo, who had Thursday’s game-winning penalty kick, had a team-high four shots with two on target. Goalkeeper Celia Ramos solidified her all-tournament selection with six more saves, and Falcon center backs Logann Dukes and Piper Paslay earned all-tournament recognition with two more gutsy efforts on the back line.
 

2026 GNAC Women's Soccer Championships All-Tournament Team
Player	School	Position
Madeline Mays	Western Washington	Forward
Andie Buckley	Seattle Pacific	Midfielder
Mie Cairns	Western Washington	Midfielder
Sofia Faremo	Simon Fraser	Midfielder
Peyton Wilson	Central Washington	Defender
Logann Dukes	Seattle Pacific	Defender
Piper Paslay	Seattle Pacific	Defender
Olivia Connell	Western Washington	Defender
Blake Francis	Western Washington	Defender
Chloe Van Wey	Western Washington	Defender
Celia Ramos	Seattle Pacific	Goalkeeper
GNAC Championships MVP - Olivia Connell, Western Washington
GNAC Championships Elite Scholar Athlete - Haley Engstrom, Central Washington

GAME NOTES: WWU is now 29-24-10 all-time in the head-to-head series against the Falcons…WWU completed the season sweep, winning 3-0 in Bellingham, Wash., on Sept. 26 and 2-0 at Interbay Stadium on Oct. 22…the two programs are responsible for 22 of the league’s 25 regular-season titles, 10 of its 14 tournament trophies and have combined to win three national championships (WWU in 2016 and 2022 and SPU in 2008)...it marks the sixth time in league history and fifth for WWU that a GNAC team swept the regular-season and tournament titles in the same season.
 
NEXT UP: The NCAA selection show, which officially announces the field of teams that will compete in the national tournament, will take place on Monday at 4 p.m. (Pacific) live on www.ncaa.com.