By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – It has been a refreshing start to the 2026 men’s soccer season for Saint Martin’s University.
 
Including three preseason exhibition contests, the Saints have gone without a defeat, conceding just one goal in five competitions from which they have taken four victories. On the official opening weekend of the regular season, SMU won both of its matches in shutout fashion – the first time it has achieved that feat since it joined the Great Northwest Athletic Conference ahead of the 2007 campaign.
 
After trouncing Walla Walla 5-0 on Thursday and grinding out a 1-0, neutral-site win over Westmont on Saturday, the Saints were named the Athletic Solutions GNAC Team of the Week on Monday. “Immediately a John Wayne quote comes to mind: ‘Life is hard - it’s even harder when you’re not smart.’ It has been a lot of hard work and figuring stuff out on the field, and all those things are starting to come together,” SMU head coach Rob Walker said, alluding to an SMU team that has had to endure a two-season stretch in which it won just one match. “We have guys coming off two years of not winning any games, but they gained valuable experience during that time. The new guys we brought in have made us better through their work rate and ability. It is a good recruiting class and development of players over time is what we are looking at now.”
 
Saturday’s victory over a regional opponent in Westmont signified the turning of a corner for the Saint program. It was a neutral-site contest – played in Burnaby, B.C. – with momentum shifting back-and-forth throughout the first 75 minutes of play. Each team had its chances towards goal, but as time wound down Walker began evaluating a match that looked to be headed towards a scoreless draw.
 
Then junior defender Jonathan Wright stepped up to produce one of the biggest moments of his collegiate career. Putting his foot clean through the ball on a volley strike from well outside the goal box, Wright watched his shot soar into the back of the net to put his team in front 1-0 with just under 14 minutes left in the match. “We had a couple good chances to score and so did they,” Walker said. “Before the goal I was working out what a 0-0 draw would look like and thought that might be a fair result. Then Jonathan had a volley smash into the upper corner from distance. He has scored his fair share, but this goal was righteous beyond belief.”
 
Wright’s fifth-career goal – he tucked home four in 15 starts last season – proved to be enough offense to propel the Saints to an important win. But it took an equally impressive effort on the back line from newly-minted GNAC Defensive Player of the Week Connor Leistiko to keep Westmont out of the net. With 100 seconds left on the clock the Warriors’ Luis Cortes fizzed a low shot towards the bottom right corner of the net. Last year’s GNAC saves leader with 95 in 2025, Leistiko extended fully to snag the dangerous attempt for what proved to be the most crucial of his five saves in the contest. “He had a postage stamp save in the second half that was a good effort from Westmont. That really could have given them the draw there,” Walker said. “Anytime you see the ability to make saves, good distribution and good leadership, that’s what it’s about. Right now he is the lone captain on the field, and he is doing a great job with the leadership piece for the team. He is organizing the back four, providing good distribution and making saves. You can’t ask for more than that.”
 
Leistiko, who earned his second-career weekly award, upped his career count to 176 saves which brought him up to No. 21 in GNAC history. His leadership defensively, Wright’s ‘worldie’ and the Saints’ response to in-game adjustments from the coaching staff were what ultimately led to the triumph. “We made some in-game adjustments, found a little bit of success for our team and made the game easier to manage for us,” Walker said. “That is always something I appreciate from a coaching perspective – the way our players adapted throughout the match.”
 
 
It has been a trying couple of seasons for the Saints, who managed just one victory in 2025 and none in 2024. Things are clearly different already this fall, and while the level of competition is about to take a major step up last week’s results are sure to instill confidence in Walker’s side.
 
SMU’s success was part of an overall stellar start to the 2026 campaign by GNAC men’s soccer teams, who went 7-1-3 across the first 11 matches of the year. Four of those wins came from Seattle Pacific and Western Washington, who each knocked off No. 5 Stanislaus State and Chico State to get their seasons off to strong starts as well. Walker tipped his cap across the league as his side now prepares to face those two opponents on the road in California this week. “For WWU and SPU to be 4-0 against two very good CCAA teams is pretty unique, and now we get to go play them down in California,” Walker said. “Getting this award is a great feeling and this is a terrific honor. You get to have a mini celebration for a few minutes, but now we have our work cut out for us. We have to travel and play two big games coming up that are going to be a whole new kind of hard for us.”
 
The most veteran men’s soccer coach in conference history, Walker has been in charge from the outset of the Saints’ GNAC tenure two decades ago. He delivered the program’s lone GNAC title in 2009 and has been a steadying presence in both the successful and toughest of times. The top-three teams in the GNAC standings at the end of the regular season earn spots in the conference tournament, a target that SMU’s side will surely be striving towards in 2026. While two official matches into the season is far too early to project how it will shake out by the end of the conference slate, one thing that is for certain as the calendar turns to September is that Walker’s side has belief. “We are ready for it, but there are some challenges up ahead,” Walker said. “We just have to take inventory of who we have available this week and get ready to go.”
 
GNAC Team of the Week presented by Athletic Solutions
Athletic Solutions became a GNAC partner in 2025 and is the official sponsor of the GNAC Team of the Week award. Athletic Solutions is a national leader in NIL fan engagement and e-commerce technology, collaborating with colleges and universities to bring NIL Locker Rooms to life. Its platform simplifies NIL opportunities, providing student-athletes with the tools and exposure needed to thrive in the evolving landscape of college athletics.