By Mark Colachico, Interim Assistant Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, ORE. -- The Willamette University womens soccer team returns home for the first time since the second Saturday in September, as the Bearcats kick off their Northwest Conference home schedule this weekend - Saturday & Sunday, Oct. 4 & 5 - against George Fox University (Ore.) and Linfield College (Ore.). Both games will begin at 12:00 p.m. (PDT) on Sparks Field.

Last weekend, the Bearcats closed out their four-game Northwest Conference road trip in the state of Washington against University of Puget Sound (Wash.).

After surrendering two goals in the opening 26 minutes, Willamette stormed back with a pair of goals in a 12-minute stretch to tie the game at 2-2 heading into halftime. Sarah Desautels (Sr., MF/F, Snohomish, WA/Glacier Park HS) teamed with Jill Phillips (Jr., MF/GK, Fairbanks, AK/West Valley HS) for the Bearcats' opening goal at 30:59 before Kinsey Keene (So., MF, Eagle, ID/Eagle HS) netted her first goal of the season on an unassisted score at 42:41. Unfortunately that would be as close as the Bearcats would get, as Puget Sound scored three unanswered goals in the second half and held Willamette without a shot over the game's final 45 minutes. Goalkeeper Emily Sewall (So., GK, Petaluma, CA/Casa Grande HS) registered a season-high nine saves in the loss.

So far this season, Phillips leads the team in all three offensive categories that includes nine points, three goals, and three assists. Veronica Ewers (Jr., MF, Moscow, ID/Moscow HS) ranks second on the team in goals with two, while Kelsey Walker (Fr., MF, Westerville, OH/Westerville North HS) has handed out a pair of assists to sit behind Phillips. Desautels has unleashed a team-high 15 shots, while Emmy Manset (Fr., F, Ventura, CA/Foothill Technology HS) has put nine of her 14 shots (64.3%) on target this year to lead the Bearcats in that category. Sewall has stood between the pipes for all 720 minutes so far this season and registered 30 saves, which ranks fifth in the Northwest Conference.

George Fox enters Saturday's game winless so far this season with an overall record of 0-6-2 and 0-4-0 in NWC games. The Bruins have not scored a goal yet this year in conference play, while allowing nine.

Kenna Meinhart has scored GFU's only goal this season, while the goalkeeping duo of Morgan Hansen and Ally Swanson have combined to allow 13 goals and registered 77 saves.

Linfield enters this weekend's games having won two-of-three contests for an overall record of 6-2 and 3-2 in NWC matches. The Wildcats are tied with conference-leading Puget Sound for goals scored in NWC games with 10.

Emily Fellows and Dani Nurmi lead Linfield with six goals each, while Fellows paces the Wildcats with a team-high 14 points. Ellie Schmidt has handed out a team-leading four assists so far this season, while McKena King has allowed a mere three goals this year in 550 minutes for a goals against average (GAA) of 0.49 that ranks second in the conference.

Following this weekend's game, Willamette returns to the road for a pair of NWC games against Pacific University of Oregon and Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) on Saturday and Sunday, October 10 & 11. Both games are set to beginning at 12 p.m. (PDT) in Forest Grove, Oregon, and Parkland, Washington, respectively.