{"id":3200,"date":"2025-01-10T19:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T19:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=3200"},"modified":"2025-03-12T22:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T22:38:35","slug":"comeback-kids","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/comeback-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Comeback Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most teams<\/span>, a painful season like EWU\u2019s 2023 soccer campaign would take years to bounce back from.<\/p>\n

Matches were usually tight, play was always competitive, but poor results spoke for themselves: Just two wins, 14 losses and one draw. After a particularly frustrating, season-ending losing streak that concluded with a dismal 4-0 beatdown at Northern Colorado, there seemed to be only darkness at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"EWU's<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the Eagle women were undaunted. And well before the 2024 season commenced in August, they were laying the groundwork \u2014 both mentally and physically \u2014 for the powerful comeback that propelled this years\u2019 squad to conference-title contenders. \u201cI saw it last year,\u201d said junior defender Becca Gaido. \u201cI knew the players on our team were capable of this, and I knew what we could do. We were just not getting the results we thought we deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur record didn\u2019t match our ability\u201d added Chloe Pattison, the team\u2019s superstar striker. \u201cA lot of the Big Sky felt we were a good team; we just couldn\u2019t find our results.\u201d<\/p>\n

That all changed this fall. Picked in preseason polling to finish eighth, Eastern instead finished 4-1-3 in conference play, earning third place and their first conference tournament appearance since 2019. It was one of the most dramatic win-loss turnarounds in the nation.<\/p>\n

Pattison, a junior from Lake Stevens, Washington, was a catalyst for the Eagle offense all season long, leading the conference in goals, shots on goal, and points. In November, she was named the Big Sky\u2019s co-offensive Player of the Year and, along with the Eagle<\/span>\u2019s attacking midfielder\u00a0 <\/span>Kendall Moore, earned a place on the Big Sky\u2019s All-Conference First Team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pattison and her teammates credit the confidence and work ethic of fourth-year head coach Missy Strasburg for fueling the turnaround. That assessment was shared by Strasburg\u2019s coaching colleagues, who awarded her the Big Sky\u2019s Coach of the Year honors, the third Eastern coach to be so named.<\/p>\n

All told, Eastern earned four Player of the Week awards in 2024, and matched 2017 with a total of six players named to All-Conference teams. Eastern\u2019s junior goalkeeper, Kamryn Willoughby, was one of these six standouts, leading a defense that kept five clean sheets.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, after earning a three seed in the conference tournament, the Eagles\u2019 title hopes ended \u2014 after 20 minutes of overtime and a penalty shoot-out \u2014 against Portland State, 1-1 (7-6). \u201cHaving such an incredible season end in PKs is absolutely gut-wrenching,\u201d said Strasburg after the match. \u201cBut our women put everything they had into that tournament quarterfinal, and we are deeply proud of their effort and commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most teams, a painful season like EWU\u2019s 2023 soccer campaign would take years to bounce back from. Matches were usually tight, play was always competitive, but poor results spoke for themselves: Just two wins, 14 losses and one draw. After a particularly frustrating, season-ending losing streak that concluded with a dismal 4-0 beatdown at…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":3202,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3200","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-sports","stories_tags-fall-winter-2024-25","stories_tags-magazine-featured"],"acf":{"subheading":"Picked to be cellar dwellers, Eastern asserts itself as a true contender.","featured_image_format":"cover","display_featured_image":false,"display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3206,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3200\/revisions\/3206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}