Head coach Joanne Bowers and assistant coach David McCreary went to the Junior Olympics for gymnastics in Long Beach last weekend. Below is a quick recap of how the future Huskies did at the meet written by Bowers.

McKenzie Fechter:  She hit all 4 routines and medaled on beam with 4^th place.  She competed so well and will help us right away in every event.

Maddie Podlucky:  She hit all 4 of her routines and medaled on floor with 8^th place.  She is so powerful and will be a great addition to our program.

Maddie Kratzke:  She did really well on Vault and Floor.  She had a few problems on bars and beam but still looked beautiful and shows a great deal of promise on those events.

They all competed very well in a big pressure meet and this bodes well for how they will compete for us.  We are very excited for them to join our program in the Fall. 

Brittany and Doris did not qualify to Nationals.  Jackie is an elite so training for Cover Girl Classic and Visa Championships.

Matt Hasselbeck was at the UW softball game Thursday night and got on the air with John Cowley and Mike Brown on 1150 AM KKNW. Listen to the interview below.

MattHasselbeckInterview_110519.mp3

A hat trick from forward Brent Richards paved the way as the Portland Timbers U-23s earned their first win of the USL Premier Development League season as they defeated the Washington Crossfire 6-0 on Sunday night at Redmond High School. The Timbers U-23s scored four of their six goals in the second half.

In his season debut, Richards scored two of his three goals in the second half to record just the third hat trick in the three-year history of the Timbers U-23s. Richards, the reigning PDL MVP, was the owner of one of the two hat-trick performances by Portland in its 2010 championship season.

Read the entire story here: http://www.uslsoccer.com/scripts/runisa.dll?M2%3Agp%3A%3A72011+Elements%2FDisplay+E+47116+News%2FDisplay%2F+13598694+33769304+6206.

On May 16 the UW women's soccer team, along with the SPU men's and women's teams, paired up at the Soundview Playfield to help teach kids soccer and raise money for Dr. Jim Olson's Pediatric Cancer Research Labratory at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

View the foundation's website here: http://www.brandonsgoal.com/events/.

Pictures from the event can be found at www.facebook.com/UWWomensSoccer.

Several media members from all over the Puget Sound area came out to the Dempsey Indoor on Wednesday for UW's first Regional practice. Check out the links below to two stories that were written yesterday.

Scott Johnson, Everett Herald: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110519/SPORTS/705199905/1129/SPORTS06.

Dave Boling, The New Tribune: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110519/SPORTS/705199905/1129/SPORTS06.

Ashley Tuiasosopo, senior outfielder for the University of Washington softball team, was presented the UW Athletic Scholar award at the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) 41st Annual Celebration, Fête and Honors on Thurs., May 5, at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in downtown Seattle.

A mathematics major and education, learning and society minor, Tuiasosopo was one of 15 UW students honored for their impressive contributions on campus and in the community, while achieving academic excellence. The dinner and scholarship fundraiser was attended by approximately 500 community and University members.

Tuiasosopo comes from a long line of Huskies, as numerous family members before her have attended UW and have been involved in athletics.  She has contributed greatly to the team from the very start, driving in a run in her first career game as a Husky in 2008.  During her sophomore year, she scored the last run in the final inning of UW's 5-1, 15-inning win in the deciding game of the NCAA Regionals.  She also received the Husky Coaches Award in 2010.

Also recognized at the event was the 2011 recipient of the Charles E. Odegaard Award, Assunta Ng ('74, '76, '79). The Odegaard Award was established in 1973 to honor a member of the community whose leadership sustains the former UW President's distinguished work on behalf of diversity. It is regarded as the highest achievement in diversity at the University.  

On May 14, 2011 the UW women's and men's soccer team hosted their Alumni event at the Dempsey indoor facility. This is an annual event that takes place in order for previous players to reconnect and duke it out in a competitive Dawg Bowl soccer match. While the women alums played on one side of the Dempsey, the men were set up on the other side. It was divided by a "kid zone" where alum's children could go to play and the present UW players would babysit them. I have attended the alumni event the past three years as a player, so I knew what to expect and how fun it was going to be. After ending my career this year, I was extremely excited to finally be able to participate as an alum.

A Dawg Bowl game is 10 minutes long (2X5) with double elimination.  For the most part, the teams were broken up by classes and the years you played as a Husky. Since some of girls in my class could not participate this year (McKenna Waitley, Jane Mitchell, and Kendyl Pele), Hannah Grieg, Makenna Brinster, and I were put on the U36 team.  These were the women who were the first group of players to be coached by Lesle when she came to UW. It was great mingling with them and hearing about their experiences at UW.

The other teams/participants included:

Team 1: Molesagna

Cheryl Gies

Suzanne Hart

Tami Nguyen

Melissa Dunckley

Dana Harrison

Liana Pence

Megan Sussman

Erin VanPaemel

Andrea Morelli

Allison May

Darcy Bond

Terry Richardson

Melinda Torre

Amy Griffin

Team 2: BOL (Bus of Losers)

Dani Bridges

Katy Dowling

Robin Alexander

Katie Hall

Cathy Johnson

Dana Stirn

Shaela Ward

Kim Furniss

Lizzay Showman

Team 3: Hot Dawgs

Nikki Leith

Jenna Robison

Chelsea Bumbaugh

Nikki Murray

Katie Buser

Erin Foley

Alex Kirk

Siana May

Nikki Nease

Alex Philips

Team Four: U-36

Angie Crivello

Erin Bowser

Adrienne Sellers

Dana Kimble

Casey McCormick

Kiki Pheasant

Stacy Ramakers

Jana Wilson

Kellye Joswick

Hannah Greig

Makenna Brinster

The Dawg bowl games were competitive and exhausting but I really enjoyed playing against all the former Huskies. The "Bus of Losers" team won the Dawg bowl tournament this year and was rewarded after during the ceremony. Although my team didn't win, being a part of such a tight bond really made me realize how lucky I am. It was amazing to see the how many incredible people continuously support UW soccer and come out each year to reconnect with everyone. It shows a lot about how special this program is and I am so fortunate to be able to call myself an Husky alum!

On the men's side from assistant coach Brandon Prideaux:

Former Husky women's soccer player Kendyl Pele just left the U.S. last week for Norway to play overseas. She is playing for Kattem Idrettslag (Kattem IL).

The club is located in Åsheim kunstgress, Trondheim, Norway and was founded in 1979.

They compete in league Toppserien, and the Norwegian Cup (12 teams). Their jersey colors are blue and white at home and red and white on the road.

Kattem was promoted to Toppserien (the top women's league in Norway) after their second place finish in 2006 in the First Division (Norway's second tier of soccer).

Kattem's highest finish in Toppserian was 9^th in 2009.

Currently the team is tied for 7^th with 9 points in 7 matches, 12 points behind league leaders Røa Idrettslag (Røa IL).

Kendyl will be blogging while she is there and you can follow her posts here: http://kickinitwithkendyl.tumblr.com/.

Men's Recap at Western Washington - May 7 - UW 2, WWU 1

It was a 2-1 win at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., for the UW men's team as the Huskies end the spring season with an impressive 5-1-1 record.

"We have enjoyed a great spring season," said head coach Jamie Clark. "Our only blemish of the season was a 2-1 loss to the Sounders, so in terms of results we are happy. We still have a lot of work to do, but we can break as a team confident about next fall.

The most encouraging sign was that we seemed to get better as the weeks went along. This final game vs. Western Washington was a dip in terms of quality of performance but the guys competed and still did enough to win.  

It was great to start and finish the spring with Brent Richards filling up the score sheet.  We are going to rely on him next fall, so it was nice for him to end the year on a high."

The men's fall schedule has not yet been finalized.

 Women's Recap at Vancouver Whitecaps at Simon Fraser University, B.C. - May 10 - Tie 0-0

The women's final spring game was against the Vancouver Whitecaps in B.C., Canada. The game ended in a 0-0 tie.

Coach Lesle Gallimore's comments on the game, "We played well and created some decent changes against a very experienced and physical team. (Alex) Webber had the best chance on a breakaway but collided with the goalkeeper who saved it. Kari (Davidson) got the shutout playing all 90 minutes and all of our backs played very solid."

Check out some pictures and video from a recent men's soccer practice.

This past week I was in California training with the U20 National Team. I have been in camps with this age group before so I was feeling a lot more comfortable and excited to train. The first couple days of camp are usually the hardest because we either Sparq fitness test or jump into double days. The practices are intense and usually very tactical. This weeks' focus was on attacking. The U20 age group is a year away from the world cup, which will be in Uzbekistan, and each camp gets more and more competitive as we get closer. We scrimmaged the U23's, UCI and the U17's. It was funny playing against the 23's because Kate (Deines) and I were up against each other in the midfield. She played great and it was cool to see her in with the national team, but I like it better when we are on the same team. We beat UCI 1-0 and the 17's 3-0. I'd say my favorite part of the trip was when we got to spend the day at the beach. At first it was supposed to be an ice-bath, but when none of us cared that the water was a little cold it turned into jumping waves and trying to ride them. We even got to go to Yogurtland, which was surprising because a nutritionist came to talk to us the day before. Other than hanging out with the girls, doing homework, relaxing and eating... we also had a hydration test. It was implemented into the schedule to teach us the importance of staying well hydrated. We took two tests. I'm pretty sure a majority of the team scored "severely dehydrated" the first round. Then it became a competition to see who could be the most hydrated. Overall it was another awesome experience and I hope to continue on to making the qualifying team!

The men's and women's soccer teams are wrapping up spring play. The women will play the Seattle Sounders Women's team at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Starfire Complex in Tukwila. The men will play at Western Washington University at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Last week, the women lost 2-1 at Seattle U and the men defeated the Tacoma Tide, 6-1 in Tukwila. Check out some photos from both games below.

Women's Photo Gallery