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VolumeXLIV
‘City 0/Roses’
Number 40
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bgerlier years
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Wednesday • October 8, 2014
Established in 1970
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C o m m itte d to C u ltu ra l D iv e rs ity • ¿community
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photo by
M ike B ivins /P ortland O bserver contributor
Kianna Green (left) and Olivia Brock are two reasons the Concordia’s women's soccer team is one the top-ranked programs in the country. The Cavaliers are defending
their first ever national championship and are currently are one of the top ranked teams in the country.
Inserting Themselves
by M ike
B ivins
P ortland O bserver contributor
When you are thinking about soccer in Portland you
usually don’t think about northeast Portland’s Concordia
University. The Timbers, Thoms or even the University of
Portland Pilots generally are what comes to mind.
However, coming off an NAI A championship season, and
currently sporting a stellar 10-1-1 record as well as being one
of the top ranked women’s soccer teams, not to mention the
top ranked team in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, and
boasting 28 wins in their last 29 games, the women’s soccer
team at Concordia is inserting themselves as a talking point
in local soccer conversations.
The Concordia program has long been a success. The
university’s trust in longtime coach Grant Landy apparently
has not been misplaced. In his 18 year tenure with the
Cavaliers, Landy is the second winningest coach in NAIA
history with 321 wins and a winning percentage of better than
82 percent. Within Concordia’s Cascade Collegiate Confer
ence, the Landy-led Cavaliers boast an otherworldly winning
percentage of 93 percent.
Yet as Concordia’s 16 conference championships were
abundant— NAIA national championships remained elu
sive. The Cavaliers had to settle for second place nationally
three times before finally being able to turn the comer—
defeating California’s Westmont College in the NAIA finals
last year to finally be able to call themselves national cham
pions.
The national title arrived at a very opportune time, coming
just after the school after accepted an NCAA Division II
invitation. This will be last season Concordia competes in
their old conference before moving to the new Great North
west Athletic Conference.
The success of the women’s soccer team and the growth
of the university’s participating in other sports certainly
played a role in the upcoming move, according to Concordia
Athletic Director Matt English.
Since 2002, English says, every Concordia team has
captured at least one conference title.
To make a move of this magnitude you need to have all the
pillars for success in place, and that means “the student
athletes, the coaches, the faculty and the administration,” he
says.
It might have been destiny, but the Cavaliers recently
played a rematch of last year’s NAIA championship game.
The setting was fitting as the No. 2 nationally ranked
continued
on page 6