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Hello Cougar Fans and welcome to the A.D. Forum. Washington State University Director of Athletics Jim Sterk will post periodic entries on this page about topics regarding WSU Athletics.
Nov. 9, 2009
For the second consecutive year, Cougar Soccer has earned a berth to the NCAA Championships and I, along with the entire WSU Athletic Department staff, congratulate our student-athletes and coaches on this tremendous achievement.
Last year's soccer team finished the regular season with a 10-5-5 record to earn its first NCAA berth in six years. This year was even better, as the Cougs finished the regular season with a 13-5-2 record, including a third place finish in the Pac-10 Conference with a 5-2-2 mark, equaling the program's best Pac-10 record in school history.
Furthermore, this season has already been a record-breaking one for the team. The eight road wins are a school record and the four wins over nationally-ranked opponents ties a school record, as does the five Pac-10 wins. In addition, the 13 wins were just one shy of the school record.
Not only has the team excelled on the field, but in the classroom, too. Last year, soccer earned the Spring 2009 Glenn Kranc Academic Award by earning the highest Spring 2009 team semester GPA-a 3.35. In addition, 11 student-athletes earned WSU President's Honor Roll designation and half the team members earned a GPA of 3.0 or above.
Many of this season's academic honors have yet to be announced, but our student-athletes have already been recognized with Kiersten Dallstream and Maggie Dougher being named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA District VIII All-Academic Teams earlier this season.
The five seniors -- Jenny Christoph, Carly Dobratz, Elysse Van Leer, Dallstream, and Dougher - will leave quite a legacy with the program. The class amassed 21 wins at Lower Soccer Field, the most in school history during a four-year period; and earned a combined six All-Pac-10, three all-region, and one national award. Additionally, the senior class earned 12 Pac-10 academic awards, and six district, region or national awards. Finally, the class finished its career undefeated against four Pac-10 opponents: Arizona, Oregon, USC, and Washington.
The soccer student-athletes epitomize what we strive to achieve in all aspects of the student-athletes experience at Washington State University and they are great ambassadors for our University. I congratulate them once again on their remarkable accomplishments and wish them the best of luck at the NCAA Championships.
Go Cougs!
Jim Sterk
Director of Athletics
Washington State University
