Fast Break: Fall sports open with a whimper, but there’s room for optimism

Students of Willamette play a game of pickup soccer with the ducks. Art by Alyssa Diggdon.

Welcome back, Bearcat Fan! Fall sports are back and off to a slow start, but we secured a couple of wins over the weekend that will hopefully motivate us as we stumble into conference play. Onto the news!

Let’s start with the bad, shall we? Bearcat football lost their first game of the season on Saturday, falling 41-17 to the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, which on the bright side is a really stupid mascot. QB1 Luke Rasmussen (’27), a transfer student from Moorpark College, put up respectable yardage but an inconsistent completion percentage and three picks. The Sagehens stuffed the ’Cats in the ground game, allowing our offense a meager 47 total rushing yards over 33 attempts. But wait! Not all is lost for the few and faithful Bearcat fans: our defense gave a fairly solid performance, with linebacker Javi Rodriguez (’27) recording seven tackles and two sacks and the overall defense forcing three picks from the Sagehen QB. So, not an utterly humiliating nor discouraging start to the season, which is good enough for me!

Women’s soccer rounded out the weekend with an even 1-1-1 start, a record that excludes a 4-1 exhibition loss to Bushnell, otherwise known as the other university in Eugene. Their one win of the season so far came from Sunday’s hard-fought 3-2 home victory over Warner Pacific. Center attacking mid Claire Warthen (’27) helped secure the victory over the Knights with the first two goals, rounding out her stat total to an impressive three goals in just three games played. 

Men’s soccer put up a slightly less impressive 0-3-1 start to the season, which excludes their 1-0 exhibition win over Corban at the home opener. The ’Cats have struggled to find their footing in the last couple of years despite a large incoming class. Here’s to hoping they can establish some solid ground before they face evil incarnate, the dreaded George Fox Bruins, away on Friday, Sept. 12 at 7:45 p.m. 

Volleyball has gotten off to a deceptively decent start to the season, boasting an unimpressive 2-5 record, but putting up good numbers against some of the best teams in the nation. On Sept. 3, outside hitter Caroline Jameson (’26) was named the NWC offensive player of the week, largely for an outstanding performance against No. 10 ranked Washington University, in which she led all players in kills and posted a .364 hitting percentage. 

Along with women’s and men’s soccer, volleyball also faces the Bruins away on Friday. 

On the bright(ish) side, triathlon put up a decent showing against Cal Poly Humboldt on Aug. 31, with Sofie Szigeti (’28) earning 20 points for the ‘Cats with her No. 7 finish.

Following the trend of mediocrity, women’s and men’s cross country both opened up the year at the Lewis & Clark 5k Opener, where the men’s side placed No. 7 out of 12 and the women No. 10 in total points. 

In the wider world of sport: Football is back, the Bears still suck, and the Oregon Ducks are awesome. Much to everyone’s dismay, the Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers downed the Jets on Sunday, but America’s sweetheart Josh Allen and the Bills eked out a narrow win over the Ravens. Did anything else happen? I dunno. Go Bearcats!

In the coming weeks, can we unite to overcome the common evil before us on Friday as both volleyball and soccer rush into conference play? And can football rally their running game against Pacific this Saturday? How will triathlon and cross country prepare for their meets at the end of the month? So many questions.