SPOKANE, Wash.- Whitworth University will begin defense of its Northwest Conference men's soccer championship this week when the Pirates open NWC play at Linfield College (Saturday) and Willamette University (Sunday). Whitworth has made it though perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule in school history with a record of 4-0-1. The Pirates are currently ranked 13th in the latest NSCAA/adidas® Men's Division III National Poll.

Caleb Barnhill

Goal Scorer: Whitworth's Caleb Barnhill (Sr., F, Sultan, Wash.) currently leads the Northwest Conference in goals per game and is tied for the lead in total goals. Barnhill has five goals in the Pirates' five matches this season, giving him an average of 1.0 goals per game, which leads the NWC. He is tied with Danny Williams of Pacific, who has five goals in six games played, for total individual goals scored.

The Montana Mountain: Bryan Olson (Jr., D, Missoula, Mont.), who has led the Pirates in minutes played each of his first two seasons, joins with Travis Jette (Sr., D, Missoula, Mont.) and Ben Rotert (Sr., D, Bozeman, Mont.) to form the bulk of Whitworth's defensive line. The trio has limited opponents to 18 shots on goal this season and have been a big reason the Bucs have a team goals-against average of 0.93.

Powerhouse Schedule: Whitworth took on five non-conference opponents that posted a cumulative record of 70-23-4 in 2007. Three of them (Gustavus Adolphus, UC Santa Cruz and Wisconsin-Whitewater) were participants in the NCAA Division III tournament last season, while Cal Lutheran was co-champion of the SCIAC.

National Rankings: After reaching 8th in the national polls last week, Whitworth's men have dropped back to 13th in today's ratings. Last week's poll was taken before Whitworth had tied 2-2 at UC Santa Cruz on Monday. That tie allowed defending national champion Loras (Iowa) to move back ahead of Whitworth to first in the regional ratings and ahead of the Pirates in the national rankings as well. Click here for the latest NSCAA national DIII poll. The latest NSCAA West Region rankings are here.

Select Company: As of September 15th, Whitworth University is one of only eight remaining NCAA Division III colleges with undefeated teams in both men's and women's soccer. The Pirate men (4-0-1) and women (4-0) join Hamilton (N.Y.), Messiah (Pa.), Salem State (Mass.), St. Thomas (Minn.), Williams (Mass.), William Paterson (N.J.) and Wittenberg (Ohio) on the list.

The Coach: The fall of 2008 marks Sean Bushey's 13th season as the head men's soccer coach at Whitworth. No coach has ever served longer in that capacity at Whitworth. Bushey, who has his USSF "A" license, has a 142-69-22 record after 12 seasons as the Bucs' head men's soccer coach (152-75-24 in 13 years overall). He has led the Pirates to three Northwest Conference titles in the last four years, and four titles overall. Last season (2007) Whitworth won an NWC title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament. In 2005 he led Whitworth to the NCAA Division III Final Four after the Pirates won their second straight NWC championship. It was the first time a men's soccer team had repeated as Northwest Conference champions in more than ten years. In 2004 he led Whitworth to its second NWC title in his tenure and to the second round of the NCAA tournament, while in 2001 he led the Pirates to a conference championship and the NCAA Regional Finals. He has been named Northwest Conference Men's Coach of the Year three times. Over the last nine-plus years (including the beginning of this season), the Whitworth men are 124-41-17 (.728).

Live Stats Offered: Live statistics of all Pirate home matches this season will be available on the Whitworth University Men's Soccer web page. The link for the matches is:
http://www.whitworth.edu/Athletics/Teams/Soccer/livestats/xlive.htm

The Opponents: Linfield College comes into the week with a strong 4-1 record in non-conference matches. The Wildcats recently finished 2-1 on a three game trip through Southern California. Kurtis Wong leads the NWC in total points per game (9 points, 2.25 points per game). Last season Whitworth defeated Linfield 2-0 at home and 1-0 in McMinnville.

Willamette University is 1-3 after an 0-2 trip to Southern California the weekend of September 5-6. Erik Kaufman leads the Bearcats with three goals this season. Last year Whitworth defeated Willamette 3-0 in Salem and 2-0 in Spokane.