Setting the Scene: As always it's a busy spring weekend for Pacific Lutheran University athletics. Softball and women's lacrosse host a pair of Oregon rivals at home while women's rowing, baseball, and track & field all hit the road. Women's rowing heads to the East Coast and will battle some of the nation's best teams in Massachusetts while baseball is in California and track & field heads across the Cascades to Central Washington University.
FRIDAY:
BB at Chapman (DH) in Orange, Calif. (11 a.m.)
SATURDAY:
T&F at Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg, Wash. (8 a.m.)
BB at Chapman (DH) in Orange, Calif. (11 a.m.)
WROW at Barbara Grant Donahue Cup in Worcester, Mass. (9 a.m. Eastern)
SB hosts Willamette (DH) at PLU Field (12 p.m.)
WLAX hosts Lewis & Clark at East Field (1 p.m.)
SUNDAY:
WROW at WPI in Worcester, Mass. (9 a.m. Eastern)
SB vs. Willamette (DH) at PLU Field (11 a.m.)
D3 Week: The week PLU and over 450 colleges and universities across the United States are celebrating Division III Week. Learn more about what makes D3 so special to both our student-athletes (
LINK) and coaches (
LINK).
Women's Lacrosse: The Lutes opened up Northwest Conference play over the weekend in Oregon before picking up the program's first ever conference win on Wednesday with an 11-7 victory over crosstown nemesis University of Puget Sound.
The Lutes pulled away in the second half to cut down the Loggers, outscoring the hosts 7-1 in the second half, including scoring all four goals in the third quarter. Six different Lutes found the back of the net with
Paige Hackman leading the way with a hat trick while
Issabella Marchio,
Peyton Terhar, and
Taylee Alldredge all scored a pair of goals.
In addition to being the squad's first ever NWC win, it was also the young program's first ever road win.
The victory came after opening the conference slate with an 18-4 setback to Linfield University and falling 20-1 to Willamette University.
Men's Golf: The Lutes finished fifth at the NWC Spring Classic last weekend at Oakbrook Golf & Country Club in nearby Lakewood and look to finish the season strong next weekend at the 2026 NWC Championships held at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Oregon.
Koen Solis paced the Lutes at the Spring Classic, finishing ninth overall. Solis shot a two-round tally of 148, including a 73 on Saturday and a 75 on Sunday.
PLU tallied a team total of 601, shooting a 297 on Saturday and a 304 on Sunday. The Lutes finished three strokes ahead of both Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark in the final standings and was just three strokes shy of third place.
Women's Golf: Pacific Lutheran competed twice this week, placing sixth at the NWC Spring Classic on Sunday in Lakewood before winning a dual match at Chambers Bay Golf Course on Wednesday against Bellevue College.
Jayda Thomas tied for seventh overall at the NWC Spring Classic, shooting a 155 (75-80) in her first conference major tournament before earning medalist honors on Wednesday with an 81.
Softball: Paige Wilson was on fire inside the circle over the weekend in Oregon, propelling the Lutes (21-7, 13-3 NWC) to a series win against host George Fox University and earning NWC Pitcher of the Week accolades for the fifth time in her career.
The Lutes won three of the four games, with Wilson credited with the pitching decision in all three wins. PLU spit the series on Friday, earning a 6-2 win in the opener as Wilson struck out six and allowed just one hit in the complete game effort. The Bruins took game two by a 13-4 scoreline but it was all Lutes on Saturday, collecting 2-1 and 5-2 wins.
Wilson struck out 11 and allowed just three hits in the 2-1 win while throwing 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in game four of the series with
Aby Redwine finishing three-for-four at the dish with three RBIs.
Women's Track & Field: The Lute sprint crew had a solid performance down in McMinnville, Oregon on Saturday at the Jenn Boyman Invitational.
Soukhanya Waters clocked a personal best time of 12.35 seconds in the 100-meter dash to place fourth overall. Waters was one of five Lutes to PR in the 100. That sprint crew also came up big in the 4x100-meter relay, placing runner-up in 48.70.
Most of the jumpers and throwers stayed local at the PLU Spring Festival, a small meet that saw
Madison Downey win three events (pole vault, long jump, and triple jump) and place second in two more (200-meters and high jump).
Men's Track & Field: The men also competed as a split squad with field events at home and track events in Oregon at the Jen Boyman Invitational.
In Oregon,
Noah Friedrich made 12 ½ trips around the oval in 16:24.29 in the 5,000-meters with
Justin Garrett clocking at 16:58.13. In the sprints,
Kaden Watts ran an 11.48 in the 100-meters and a 23.15 in the 200-meters.
Back at home,
Bridger Hanis won the high jump (6' 0 ¾") while also getting field event wins from
Jake Wood (javelin),
Micah Ragaza-Bourassa (hammer),
Chace Mcsherry (shot put), and
George Sonko (discus).
Baseball: The Lutes (9-12, 7-8 NWC) held leads in all three games of the series last weekend but was unable to close all three out, getting swept by Linfield University. The Wildcats walked off with a 7-6 win in the opener before taking the next two games by 7-5 and 7-4 scorelines.
PLU steps out of conference play this weekend, heading to California for a four-game series with Chapman.
Kyle Tat is the team leader at the plate with a .352 batting average through the first 21 games of 2026.
Carson Burke has provided the power with a team-best 19 RBIs and five home runs.
Women's Rowing: The Lutes ship off to the East Coast this weekend, facing some of the best teams in Division III on Lake Quinsigamond in two days of racing hosted by Worcester Polytechnical Institute.
This is PLU's first road regatta of the spring and the squad's first taste of competition since racing for the Lamberth Cup on March 21. That morning saw the Lute varsity eight boat finish a half second behind boathouse rival Puget Sound, charging down the 2,000-meter course on American Lake in 7:24.5. PLU's second varsity eight was runner-up in its race, finishing in 8:36.8.
