CWU women’s soccer has to win all seven of their next games if they want to make it to the GNAC tournament, which include two away games against Seattle Pacific University (SPU) on Oct. 12, and Simon Fraser on Oct. 14. CWU’s record is currently 1-3-5 and is ranked six of nine in the GNAC standings.

“It sucks,” head coach Michael Farrand said. “We had a great run last year, and we did some fun things and we have struggled all year long.”

The team has been fighting injuries throughout the year. Last year, goalie Emily Holt played in a lineup where the back line had never changed. This year, she has played every game with a different lineup.

“As a goalkeeper, that is a tough thing. For defense, that’s a tough thing, because the rhythm of what we do isn’t quite there,” Farrand said.

Holt said, “We know what we are capable of doing, and we haven’t shown that yet to anybody in a game setting, and that is the most frustrating part.”

Last season, the team made history by being the first CWU women’s soccer team to make it to NCAA regionals.

“It was pretty great,” Holt said. “We played SPU first round in regionals and knocked them out, going into that game, even though we had lost to them previously, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were going to win.”

Last year, CWU defeated Seattle Pacific 2-1 in the first round of regionals and eliminated them from the tournament. This year was a different story.

“We have seven games left to hang our season on so we need points from all seven games,” Farrand said. “So at this point, I don’t think it really matters if we play Simon Fraser, SPU, or we play Western seven times. For us, our season is these seven games to put us back in the GNAC tournament.”

This doesn’t mean that they aren’t preparing for these away games.

“SPU away is always a great game for us, we have a lot of alumni who support us there, so it’s kinda like a home game for us. It’s a mid-week game against one of our biggest rivals,” Farrand said. “It’s the team that we knocked out of the NCAA’s last year. It’s a big game in itself.”

SPU has a record of 4-1, and they are ranked second in the GNAC standings.

CWU plays Simon Fraser on October 14, which has a record of 3-2; they are fifth in the GNAC standings, one game above CWU. CWU has already played Simon Fraser this year and lost 4-2.

“It’s another big game for us. Again, these are teams that are ahead of us that we need to go and get results on,” Farrand said. “I’m not going to say revenge because it doesn’t matter to us. Every game at this point matters. You don’t have to use revenge, you don’t have to use ‘let’s get them back,’ because it doesn’t matter. We have to win every game.