Women's soccer is the third-and-final of the Evergreen fall sports teams to get the 2018 season underway, and that will happen at noon Monday when the Geoducks host the Ottawa University (Ariz.) Spirit at Geoduck Pitch.

Ottawa opened its season on Saturday afternoon at Geoduck Pitch in a neutral-site match against Corban University, with the latter picking up a hard-fought 3-2 win. Ottawa women's soccer is in its second season as a program.

The Geoducks, under second-year head coach Dave Morris, are looking to make positive strides after struggling to a 0-13-2 overall record last year. An obvious area of needed improvement is offense as Evergreen managed just six goals during the entire 2017 season. To that end, expect to see junior Delaney Rice and sophomore Madison Early, both of whom scored a goal last season, find the back of the net more frequently this year. Rice missed half of last season with a leg injury and her healthy return to the lineup is a boost for the team. Senior Brook Swensen gained valuable experience and looks to help on the offensive end.

A lot of the offense will run through junior midfielder Maddie Lockwood, a tireless worker who has started throughout her Evergreen career. Another junior, Ana Vigil, is another player who will give a 90-minute maximum effort in the middle of the park.

The defense returns four regular starters from a year ago in center backs Melyssa Nocis and Felicia Collins and outside backs Lexi Asher and Lexi Leohner, though Collins is currently injured and her return date is unknown. Between those four were 46 starts for a team that allowed two goals per game despite often facing relentless pressure from opponents.

Among the key Evergreen newcomers: freshman midfielder/defender Sunny Bieber, a standout for the playoff-experienced Puyallup High School team; sophomore defender Keahna Umpstead, a transfer from University of Pikeville; and junior midfielder Alyssa Nordman, a transfer from Tacoma CC.

The goalkeeper duties will fall to either freshman Daphne Hobbs or junior Megan Breckenridge, who for the past two seasons has played volleyball at Evergreen.

In their annual preseason poll, conference coaches picked Evergreen to place 12th in the 13-team league. The Geoducks are out to prove those coaches wrong, and on Monday they take their first step toward making that happen.

Following Monday's match, the Geoducks will be back in action at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, when they host the University of Puget Sound, that to be followed by games in California against UC Santa Cruz on Aug. 31 and Mills on Sept. 2. Evergreen's conference season gets underway on Friday, Sept. 15, against Corban in Salem, Ore.