No. 12 Washington Begins Midwest Swing Thursday Night In Minneapolis

Thursday, October 22

Minneapolis, Minn.

5:00 p.m.

University of Washington

Minnesota

October 21, 2026 | Women's Soccer

UW Notes Minnesota Notes Watch Live Stats

MINNEAPOLIS – With the regular season winding down, the 12^th ranked Washington women's soccer team looks to keep pace amid the top of the Big Ten table with a pair of road tests during the week, beginning with a Thursday night showdown with Minnesota at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

Kickoff from Minneapolis is set for 5:00 p.m. PT, streaming live on B1G+. Links to live coverage are available at GoHuskies.com.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA
Minnesota is in its sixth season under the direction of Golden Gopher alum Erin Chastain, returning to her alma mater after 14 seasons at DePaul. Chastain has guided Minnesota to one NCAA Tournament appearance.

The Golden Gophers are riding a three-match losing streak, most recently falling 1-0 at Wisconsin Sunday. Minnesota has been at its best at home, owning a 5-1-2 record in Minneapolis.

The Gophers are led offensively by senior forward Ava Westlund, with the California Baptist transfer scoring six goals and adding a pair of assists. Four different Gophers are tied for the team lead with three assists.

Senior Sarah Martin is in her third season as Minnesota's primary keeper, posting a 1.21 GAA with a .786 save percentage on 66 stops.

SERIES HISTORY
Washington and Minnesota have split the two previous meetings in the series, with the Huskies pulling a 3-2 comeback at home over the Gophers in 2025. It was the first meeting since 1996, a 2-1 Minnesota win in Portland.

LAST MEETING (Oct. 16, 2025)
SEATTLE - The Washington women's soccer team found itself up a goal less than a minute into Thursday night's match with Minnesota but had to scrap and claw to overturn a first half deficit, stunning the Golden Gophers with a 3-2 comeback victory at Husky Soccer Stadium.

Senior duo Avery Nguyen and Kelsey Branson provided the second half heroics, Hitting the back of the net in the 60th and 81st minutes to overturn the result.

Washington outshot the Gophers 21-8, including a 15-4 barrage in the second half.

It took just 43 seconds for the Huskies to push ahead. Mere moments after the kickoff, Jadyn Holdenried and Lucy Newlin teamed up to spring Alex Buck behind the Minnesota back line. One-on-one, the sophomore tipped the ball past a charging Sarah Martin, slotting the ball into the vacant goal to make it 1-0 UW.

Washington continued to boss possession in the early minutes, but Minnesota punched back in the 16thminute on a headed goal by Caroline Birdsell.

25 minutes later, the Huskies found themselves behind on Mariah Nguyen goal in the 41st minute.

Going into the second half trailing for the first time in 2025, Washington flipped the script in the second 45, peppering the Minnesota goal and turning zero points into three.

Nguyen brought the score level in the 60th minute with arguably the goal of the season for Washington. Dribbling past multiple defenders at the top of the 18, the Kansas native unleashed a bullet towards the upper 90, clattering off the crossbar and in to knot things up at two goals apiece.

The Huskies continued to swarm and it paid off in the 81st as Branson latched onto a spilled ball inside the six, slipping a shot between Martin's legs to bag the late-winner, extending Washington's winning streak to five matches.

BEST ON BEST
Washington's 0-0 draw Friday with No. 11 UCLA was the 12th match against a ranked opponent for UW since the start of the 2025 season. The Huskies own a 7-2-3 record in those matches.

KEEPING IT 100
With five saves at UCLA, Husky keeper Tanner Ijams eclipsed the century mark in career saves at Washington. Ijams stands at 104 stops in just two seasons for UW.

LOCK DOWN DEFENDERS
Contributing on both ends of the pitch in UW's 2-0-0 opening week of conference play, second year Maylen Montoya was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for Week Five, her second weekly award. The outside back was also selected to TopDrawerSoccer's Team of the Week after holding Maryland and Rutgers to nine total shots across a pair of clean sheets, also scoring the match-winner against the Terrapins.

Maya Loudd joined Montoya with her second career DPOTW nod for Week 8, earning the nod after helping the Dawgs hold USC to a single shot on goal. Loudd also contributed offensively with a pair of shots, one on frame.

FAR FROM MID
Earlier in the week, third year attacker Alex Buck was named to the Mid-Season Watch List for the 2026 MAC Hermann Trophy, the highest individual honor in college soccer. Despite missing significant time through national team duty, Buck is among 30 of the nation's elite players in consideration for the prestigious award.

CLEAN SHEET COLLECTOR
In less than two seasons' time, Tanner Ijams has placed herself in rarified air. With the shutout win over USC, the Californian passed legendary keeper Hope Solo for sole possession of third place all-time at Washington in career clean sheets, currently sitting at 20. Part way through her second season of playing time, Ijams is just one shutout shy of Megan Kufeld's school record of 21.

BACK TO FRONT
A key change to UW's attack in 2026 is the goal contributions from the defensive unit. Five of Washington's 20 goals this season have been scored by players on the back line with Maylen Montoya and Anna Menti each bagging a pair of goals apiece in addition to Maya Loudd's lone goal. In comparison, Montoya's goal versus Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament was UW's loan goal contribution from the defensive unit in 2025.

POLL POSITION
Washington climbed up two spots to No. 12 in the IWSOC/United Soccer Coaches Poll. It is the 16th straight week UW has appeared in the poll. UW also continues to be ranked in the TopDrawerSoccer Top-25, slotting in at No. 11.

STACKING BRICKS
The Huskies have demonstrated one of the nation's stingiest defenses over the last two-plus season, tying the program record for clean sheets with 11 in 2024 before breaking said record with 12 shutouts in 2025. UW's 33 clean sheets since the start of the 2024 season are tied for the third most in the nation.

Most Shutouts since 2024
UCLA – 36
Utah State – 34
Washington - 33
Saint Louis - 33
Georgetown – 32
Dayton - 31
Lipscomb - 31
Mississippi State – 31
North Carolina - 31

TOP DRAWER TALENT
Washington has two players listed in TopDrawerSoccer's Top-100 player rankings, with third year forward Alex Buck slotting in at No. 26 and third year goalkeeper Tanner Ijams coming in at No. 65. Buck, who was also named TopDrawerSoccer Third Team Best XI, ranked third in the Big Ten in points in 2025, while Ijams' 0.67 GAA was the fourth-lowest in a season in Husky history, tying the program record for single season clean sheets with 11.

VET SCHOOL
Washington boasts a roster laden with experience, with 17 of 30 Huskies in their third collegiate season or later. Of the eight returning starters for Washington, seven own at least two seasons of collegiate experience. Included in the group of veteran leaders for UW are fifth years Lucy Newlin and Avery Nguyen, who return for a final season after receiving waivers this offseason, as well as sixth-year South Dakota State transfer Taylor Thomas.

WINNER'S MENTALITY
Of the 11 goals scored by Jadyn Holdenried since the start of 2025, eight have been match-winners, the most by any Husky in that time frame. The fourth year, who entered last season with four total goals in her first two seasons, has scored 11 times since. UW is 14-0-1 all-time when Holdenried scores.

JUST WIN, BABY
15 of Washington's last 19 wins have come by a single goal, including 12 1-0 victories. UW has won 18 matches by one goal since the start of the 2025 season.

SAVING HER BEST
Alex Buck has scored 13 of her 14 career goals after the start of conference play, including nine such goals in 2025, tied for the most in the Big Ten.

ON THE WORLD STAGE
Alex Buck and Grace Duncan recently experienced the great honor of representing their home nations at the U20 World Cup in Poland, suiting up for the USWNT and the Football Ferns of New Zealand, respectively. The two sides met up during the group stage, a win for the USA in which Buck scored twice. Buck finished the tournament with three goals, tying for the US lead.

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB
One of the more unique paths to the Husky roster comes from junior Avery Nguyen, who was offered a roster spot prior to the start of the 2023 season after a trial during preseason training. A native of the Kansas City metro area and a former standout for Olathe Northwest High School and Sporting Blue Valley, Nguyen led the UW club team in scoring as a college freshman in 2022.

Nguyen has become one of UW's most dangerous weapons either in the starting XI or off the bench, registering five goals and three assists over the last two seasons.

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATION
Washington was picked to finish third in its title-defending season in the 2026 Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll, receiving the third-most votes behind predicted champion Michigan State and UCLA. UW was selected ninth in the 2025 iteration of the preseason poll, going on to win the regular season title with a match in hand.

DEFEND THE THRONE
Washington enters 2026 with a target on its back, winning the Big Ten double a season ago as the league's regular season and conference champions, UW's first conference championship since 2000. UW became the first league team to claim the Big Ten double since Minnesota in 2016 and the first school to win both championships undisputed since Nebraska in 2013.

THE NOTORIOUS NVD
Washington locked up reigning unanimous Big Ten Coach of the Year Nicole Van Dyke this offseason, inking the Husky gaffer to a contract extension through the 2030 season. The extension comes after Van Dyke led the Dawgs to the NCAA Elite Eight for the third time on program-history, the third NCAA Tournament bid during Van Dyke's UW tenure. In her six seasons on Montlake, Van Dyke has guided Washington to 60 wins and has developed 15 all-conference players, including All-Americans Summer Yates, Kolo Suliafu and Alex Buck.

HERE TO ASSIST
The Washington sideline will have a new look this season with three new assistant coaches manning the bench.

Whitney Pitalo joins the UW staff after serving as head coach at Cal State Bakersfield in 2025. Pitalo previously resided in the Evergreen State as an assistant coach at Gonzaga, earning United Soccer Coaches West Region Staff of the Year honors in 2023.

Paige Brandt will direct the development of the Husky goalkeepers, coaching All-WCC Honorable Mention keeper Mya Sanchez during her lone season in the same role at Oregon State.

After three seasons as UW's program coordinator, Husky alum Mary Walstad joins the coaching staff in 2026. Walstad appeared in 42 matches with 38 starts over four seasons at Washington from 2019-2022.

IN IT TO TWIN IT
Five different Husky players are a part of a twin or triplet pairing in Vanessa Aguilar, Ryan Boehm, Angelica Chou, Grace Duncan and Mary Camp Newton. In fact, Boehm faced off against twin sister Myra earlier in the season when UW faced Gonzaga, while Newton's sister Ridley plays for defending NCAA Division III National Champion Washington University in St. Louis.

Twin/Triplet Connections on UW's Roster
Vanessa & Michelle Aguilar
Ryan & Myra Boehm
Angelica & Colin Chou
Grace & Maddy Duncan
Mary Camp, Ridley & Sutherland Newton

LEFT SIDE, BEST SIDE
Of the 30 members of Washington's 2026 roster, 22 hail from West Coast states, featuring 11 homegrown products of Washington, 10 natives of California and one player from the Portland suburbs in Oregon. However, Washington's squad spans the US and globe, with natives of Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia as well as a pair of internationals from Belgium and New Zealand donning the Purple and Gold.

SMART COOKIES
For the 11th-straight season, Washington has received the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award after posting a 3.50 cumulative GPA team GPA.

At the individual level, fifth year Lucy Newlin received UW's Academic Excellence Award for 2026 for graduating with the highest cumulative GPA among graduating student-athletes at 3.98. Newlin also received the Big Ten's Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship and was one of two UW student-athletes to receive the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award in 2024-25.

MENTI BE
Anna and Sally Menti, who starred at Roosevelt High School, less than three miles from Husky Soccer Stadium, have shared different paths to playing in front of their home state fans. Sally was an All-American midfielder at Santa Clara before signing a short-term contract and later a two-year extension last season with the NWSL's Seattle Reign, making 41 appearances and 25 starts with three goals and two assists. Meanwhile, Anna is in her fourth season at UW, making 75 appearances with 61 starts and collecting three goals and three assists along the way.

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