The Lowdown: Ottawa University @ Friends University

Location: Adair-Austin Stadium        

Kickoff: Oct. 28 @ 5:00 PM

Live Stream: https://kcacnetwork.com/friends/

Live Stats https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/wsoc/2026-27/conf/KCAC/boxscores/20261028_lc5a.xml

Tickets: https://tickets.friendsathletics.com/section/mens-and-womens-soccer-geww

Flying with the Women's Soccer Falcons (12-3-1, 10-1-0 KCAC)

The Friends University Falcons secured their fifth straight win and 12^th victory in their last 13 matches with a 1-0 victory at Tabor College last Saturday (Oct. 24). Trinity Granger scored the only goal the Falcons needed with less than two minutes left in the opening half. Read the full recap of the Falcons' latest win at Tabor HERE!

Kieley Aranda and Anahi Ibarra-Arevalo each lead the Falcons with eight goals on the season, with both registering four game-winning goals that rank tied for second in the KCAC. Liset Vallejo has dished out a team-leading three assists. 

Kaitlyn Martinez and Camilla Apple have each provided solid minutes in the net this season for the Falcons. Martinez has played in 10 matches and has recorded a 1.11 GAA with 55 saves while ranking fifth in the KCAC in save percentage (.846). In seven outings this season, Apple has been extremely effective with a 0.17 GAA, a .938 save percentage and 15 saves overall.

Dish on the Braves (6-9-0, 5-6-0 KCAC)

After losing six straight matches, the Ottawa University Braves have now won their past three outings to improve to 6-9 overall and 5-6 in the KCAC.

Charlotte Gatehouse leads the Braves with 10 goals this season, with Melissa Grohmann recording a team-leading five assists.

Makena Tapia and Lena-Marie Winkler have seen significant time at goalkeeper this season for the Braves. Tapia has a 2.04 GAA with 34 saves during her 750:27 in the net, while Winkler has accumulated a 2.19 GAA and made 32 saves in just over 535 minutes.

The Series: The Falcons are unbeaten vs. the Braves in the last 10 matches, winning six of those outings while tying the other four meetings. Prior to that, the Braves won 14 straight in the series from 2007-2018. Friends is 8-18-4 vs. Ottawa overall since 2004, with a 4-7-2 mark in Wichita during that stretch.

No points for you (or you and you): The Falcons' five-match winning streak has all been clean sheet victories, with the defensive unit currently sporting a scoreless streak of more than 470 minutes.

Game-winning goals galore: As mentioned above, Kieley Aranda and Anahi Ibarra-Arevalo are tied for second in the KCAC with four game-winning goals. It's a three-way tie for second, with Ottawa's Charlotte Gatehouse also putting in four game-winning goals this season.

Still hoping for a Championship: If the Falcons win their final two matches and Oklahoma Wesleyan loses or ties at least one of their final two outings, the Falcons will claim their first KCAC regular season championship of the modern era.

Strong Indicator: Shots-on-goal by themselves are meaningless on the scoreboard, but it can indicate control of the match, and that's been the case this season for the Falcons. Friends is unbeaten in nine matches when leading in shots-on-goal but is just 1-3-1 when it trails in the category. The Falcons won the only match that shots-on-goal were even.

A Tie is a Win: The Falcons have made key plays in the second half when needed, as they are unbeaten at 4-0-1 this season when the match is tied at halftime.

Fore! The Falcons have scored a season-high four goals twice this season, first in a 4-1 win over Saint Mary (Sept. 30) and then again in a 4-0 victory at Sterling on Oct. 10.

Top of the League: The Falcons have been well represented in the KCAC weekly honors this year. Friends has twice swept the KCAC awards, most recently with Kieley Aranda winning Offensive Player of the Week and Payton Kaufmann garnering Defensive Player of the Week recognition on Oct. 19.  Earlier in the season, the Falcons also swept the KCAC Offensive (Anahi Ibarra-Arevalo) and Defensive (Alayna Runck) awards on Sept. 14 before Paige Putter was named the league's top defender on Sept. 22.

The Coaches:

Brent Hobson in his 13th season leading the Falcons women's soccer team for the 2026 season.  After failing to qualify for the NAIA National Tournament for 15 seasons, Hobson has now guided the Falcons to five national appearances in the past seven years. In his 12 seasons at the helm, Hobson has amassed an overall record of 141-82-24. 

Last season, the Falcons went 14-4-4 and finished second in the KCAC regular season for the fourth time in the past 11 seasons.

The 2024 season saw the Falcons cross an item off the bucket list, winning their first KCAC tournament championship of the modern era to clinch another NAIA National Tournament bid. The Falcons' run to the KCAC tourney title included a dramatic penalty kick win over top-seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan University in the semifinal round and a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over York University in the championship match. The Falcons finished 14-6-2 overall for the program's fourth straight double-digit victory season.

The Falcons recorded a 13-5-4 record in 2023 and their first conference unbeaten season (10-0-3) in the modern era that resulted in a second-place finish in the KCAC and another berth into the NAIA National Tournament. 

In 2021, Hobson coached the Falcons to a runner-up regular season finish in the conference and mentored KCAC Freshman of the Year Keily Larosee and the league's top newcomer Elyssa Salazar. 

Hobson guided the Falcons to a breakthrough 2019 season, finishing second in the league and advancing to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in 15 years to earn KCAC Coach of the Year honors.  He coached eight All-KCAC performers in 2019, including two-time Goalkeeper of the Year Lauren Ferguson while guiding the team to the conference tournament championship game. 

In the 2018 campaign, Hobson led the Falcons to a fourth-place in the KCAC for the second straight season and a home postseason tournament match for the third consecutive year. 

He also coached six Falcons to all-conference honors, including KCAC Goalkeeper of the Year Lauren Ferguson. 

The Falcons also soared off the pitch under Hobson, with a conference-high 18 student-athletes receiving KCAC Scholar-Athlete honors. 

During the 2017 campaign, Hobson guided the squad to a fourth-place conference finish and a KCAC quarterfinal home match, with five Falcons earning all-conference recognition. 

Off the pitch, the Falcons placed four student-athletes on the NAIA Scholar-Athlete list while a whopping 10 team members received the KCAC Scholar-Athlete award. 

In 2016, the Falcons matched the 11 wins from a year before but improved to an 8-3 record in KCAC play for a third-place finish in the conference standings. Cuda repeated her CoSIDA award and was named the Academic All-America of the Year, the top academic award in all of college sports.

Hobson played all four years at Friends University then was hired on as an assistant coach for the men's and women's soccer teams.   During his career, he tallied a total of 33 goals and 21 assists, along with eight game-winning goals. Hobson earned 2nd Team All-KCAC honors his junior year and 1st Team All-KCAC after his senior season. He also received numerous team awards. The Falcons were 24-10-3 in the KCAC and 47-27-5 overall in Hobson's four seasons on the team.

In 2013-2015, Hobson played professionally for the Wichita B-52's in the PASL & MISL Indoor Soccer League.

Hobson received his degree in health management from Friends in 2011. Hobson and his wife, Whitney, live in Wichita.

James Cottage is in his second season as head coach of the Ottawa University women's soccer program. Last year, the Braves finished 5-8-5 overall and 4-5-4 in the KCAC.

Before arriving at Ottawa, Cottage was the head coach for four seasons at Bethel College. At Bethel, Cottage was responsible for guiding the Threshers to their most wins in over a decade.

Cottage also has a head coaching tenure at Southwestern Christian University, where he led SCU to the 2016 National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Championship and a 15-5-5 mark to earn NCCAA Coach of the Year honors.

He also played collegiately for SCU and helped the team win the ACCA and the NCCAA Southwest Regional championship as a junior.

Up Next: The Falcons will celebrate Senior Day in the regular season finale at home vs. McPherson College Saturday (Oct. 31) at noon.   

Women's Soccer Falcons by the Numbers: (Stats do not reflect forfeit victory vs. Bethany)

Overall: 12-3-1

KCAC: 10-1-0

Home: 5-1-0

Away: 6-2-1

Neutral: 1-0-0

Scoring zero goals: 0-1-1

Scoring one goal: 3-2-0

Scoring two goals: 3-0-0

Scoring three goals: 3-0-0

Scoring 4+ goals: 2-0-0

Allowing zero goals: 9-0-1

Allowing one goal: 2-0-0

Allowing two goals: 0-1-0

Allowing three goals: 0-1-0

Allowing 4+ goals: 0-1-0

Leading at halftime: 7-0-0

Trailing at halftime: 0-3-0

Tied at halftime: 4-0-1

Leading in shots-on-goal: 9-0-0

Trailing in shots-on-goal: 1-3-1

Shots-on-goal are even: 1-0-0