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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's soccer team completes its season-opening five-game home stand with the final two games this Labor Day Weekend. They begin by hosting Biola at Dumke Field on Friday, Sept. 2 at noon. The Griffins then face Great Falls in a Frontier Conference game on Monday, Sept. 5 at 1 p.m.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster enters the week after picking up two wins at home last week. They started the mini-streak with a 2-1 win over No. 5 Baker in double overtime. The Griffins then opened Frontier Conference action with a 5-2 win against Rocky Mountain.

Margo Hickman has opened her Westminster career by scoring three goals in the first three games. Hickman added one assist for a team-best seven points through three games. Freshman Carissa Cooper scored twice against Rocky and now has four points. Alyssa Hill and Corie Walch have totaled three points apiece by each scoring one goal with one assist. Dayna Winter-Nolte has an early season GAA of 1.56 with 15 saves and a .750 save percentage.

Game Coverage
Live Stats will be available for both games on this week's schedule. You can access the live stats by visiting WestminsterGriffins.com. The live stat feed is also available for mobile phones by clicking on the mobile link at the bottom of the main live stats screen.

Tickets
Tickets for Westminster College home athletic events can be purchased on the day of the game at the event site. Typically, tickets will be on sale one hour before the start of the event and accepted payments include: cash, check and all major credit cards.
Tickets cost $4 for adults and $3 for children, seniors, alumni and non-Westminster students. Current Westminster students receive free admission with a valid student ID.

Dumke Field
Women's soccer home games are played on Dumke Field. Pets are not allowed on Dumke Field. Purchase tickets at northwest gate entrance and all seating is general admission. Persons with disabilities can access the field at the northeast gate entrance and proceed to the grandstand area.

Friday's Opponent: Biola
Biola comes to town after starting the year with a 2-1 loss versus Cal State Pomona. They face Cal State San Marcos on Tuesday before making the trip to Salt Lake City.

Ashleigh Cooley scored the lone goal for the Eagles in the opener. Taylor Lundquist recorded an assist on the Cooley goal. Erin Frushon made five saves with a .833 save percentage while Marina Rodriguez posted two saves.

Monday's Opponent: Great Falls
Great Falls heads to SLC at 0-2 on the year after losses to Corban and Eastern Oregon last week. The Argos were outscored 9-3 in those two contests.

Ashly Pezel scored the lone goal in the game against Corban. Quinn Wilson has tallied one assist to start the year. Sherry Blaisdell has made seven saves in the Argo cage.

Hickman Streaking
Junior forward Hickman has scored in each of the first three games for the Griffins. This is just the third time in school history a Griffin has scored in three straight games. Jennifer Pirente twice has a goal in three straight games. She first did it from Sept. 5-Sept. 12 in 2008 and then again from Sept. 2-Sept. 8 in 2009. Should Hickman score against Biola, she would become the first player in school history to score in four straight games.

Rising Freshman
Freshman forward Carissa Cooper has made an immediate impact coming off the Griffins bench in the first three games of her career. Cooper has fired four shots in her first three games and scored two goals against Rocky on Monday. She also scored in the exhibition game against Iowa Western at Rio Tinto. The school record for goals by a freshman in a season is five set by Kate Stoner in 2008.

Player of the Week
Westminster senior goalkeeper Winter-Nolte was named the Frontier Conference defensive player of the week on August 29. Winter-Nolte was honored for the third time in her career and the first time since Oct. 19, 2009. She won the honor after making six saves in the Griffins 2-1 double overtime win over No. 5 Baker on August 26.

Dumke Advantage
The Griffins have posted a 21-9-1 all-time record on the fast surface of Dumke Field. They have never dropped more than two games in a season and went 5-2-0 at home last year. Westminster plays nine games at home this year including the first five on the slate. The team has started the season with two wins in three games at Dumke Field.

Checking the Polls
Westminster received one point in the NAIA Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll that was released on August 16 and is listed among the others receiving votes. This is the first time the Griffins have received points in the poll since the October 19, 2010 poll. The next poll will be announced on Tuesday, September 6.

The team is also ranked fifth in the Unaffiliated - Frontier/Cal Pac rankings. Carroll is rated as the top team in this group with Rocky Mountain placing second. The next Unaffiliated ratings will be released on September 5.

Playing the Best
The Westminster women's soccer team is playing maybe the toughest slate of games in school history this season. The Griffins will face five teams that qualified for the 2010 NAIA National Championships and 11 opponents that won at least 10 games last season.

The 15 teams on the 2011 schedule combined to go 153-98-32 (.597) last season. They combined to win eight games at the national tournament with no team that qualified losing an opening round contest. Westminster will also face seven teams that are ranked in the NAIA Preseason Top 25 Coaches' Poll and two more that received votes in the poll.

Frontier Conference vs. Cal Pac Conference
On Saturday, November 12 the champion of the Frontier Conference and the champion of the Cal Pac Conference will play for an automatic berth into the NAIA National Championships. That game will be played on Dumke Field with a start time yet to be announced.