Women’s soccer is gearing up for a six game season this spring featuring three other GNAC schools. When news came out that athletics would have an independent spring season for some of their teams, there was a sigh of relief. 

While the team didn’t meet during break, they’ve been back practicing since January 19th. 

Junior Makinzie Packwood, a forward, said the team has missed being together to practice again and hopefully being able to play some games in the spring is really exciting. 

According to Packwood, for the seniors it’s not the season they had hoped for. Packwood said with everything they’ve been through that they’d do anything just to play one game. They are looking forward to playing this year.

“We’re just honestly making the most of it, especially for our seniors because they’ve done so much for us,” Packwood said. “They deserve to really just have the best last possible season that they can no matter what that is.” 

According to senior goalkeeper Emily Thomson, they’re still making the best of it and taking in every moment they can.

For Thomson with the border restrictions, she won’t be able to have family attending games and explained that’s probably the hardest part for her. However, she’s very excited for the upcoming season since she didn’t think it’d get to this point with the pandemic.

“When everything first started happening we were really hopeful for the fall even, and things like that so you know I’m really excited even being able to go on the field one last time and get that moment with my team,” Thompson said.

Thomson explained she’s looking forward to seeing how far this team has come within the last few years. Thomson wants to show the team’s competitiveness this year and is grateful they still get to play WWU and SPU so they can show what they’re capable of.

Last season CWU got eliminated in the GNAC tournament by Western Washington University (WWU) by a score of 2-1.

The team just got their schedule and it was announced they’ll be playing Seattle Pacific University (SPU) and WWU twice each. 

Head Coach Michael Farrand said how important those matchups are with how good those schools are. Both SPU and WWU have won NCAA national championships.

“You know if you beat either of those two teams your senior year that’s something you’re going to remember for a long time,” Farrand said.

Farrand said all student athletes are looking to get back to a sense of normalcy, interacting and training with each other while at the same time keeping safe and bonding. He said while they’re doing this, they’re still following the mandates that are in place.

“Being able to have a real college experience and being able to share that with each other, I think that’s the part we missed more than anything else through the fall,” Farrand said.