SPOKANE, Wash. -- Whitworth College's hope for a third consecutive Northwest Conference title in men's soccer is put to the test this weekend when the Pirates play championship deciding matches at Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran.

GK Kevin Bostock is the current NWC Defensive Player of the Week

Whitworth is 9-3-3 overall and 8-1-2 in the NWC, three points ahead of UPS (10-1-2, 7-1-2, 23 points) in the standings. The Pirates have three games remaining in the regular season, while the Loggers have four. UPS is rated 19th in the latest NSCAA/adidas Division III poll. PLU (9-5-1, 6-3-1, 19 points) is third in the conference standings.

Whitworth comes into the weekend unbeaten in its last seven matches. Led by this week's NWC Defensive Player of the Week Kevin Bostock (Sr., GK, Whitefish, Mont. - Whitefish), the Pirates have given up only three goals and posted five shutouts during that stretch. Whitworth defeated Pacific 4-0 and Linfield 1-0 in overtime last weekend.

Puget Sound has won three straight, outscoring those opponents 9-0 during the stretch. The Loggers and Pirates played to a 0-0 draw in Spokane on October 1st, the first blemish on the UPS record this season. Both the Pirates and Loggers have lost 1-0 decisions to Pacific. Whitworth has won the last two meetings between the teams in Tacoma. The Pirates won 2-1 last season on first half goals by Skye Henderson and Sean Lambrecht.

Pacific Lutheran still has hope for an NWC title if the Lutes can win out their final four contests. They suffered a blow last week, dropping a 2-0 decision to UPS. Whitworth defeated PLU 2-0 in Spokane on September 30th on second half goals by Curtis Flournoy and Matt Friesen. The Pirates edged the Lutes 2-1 in double overtime in Tacoma last season on a goal by Niko Varlamos.

Whitworth is attempting to become the first NWC team to win three straight NWC titles since 1990 (when the Pirates also won three in a row). Whitworth's Northwest Conference record since the start of the 2004 season is 33-2-4 (.872).