Senior forward Claire Morgan scored the winning goal in the 106th minute as Western Washington University edged Chico State University, 2-1 in overtime, in a non-conference women's soccer game Thursday at University Soccer Stadium. The contest, which was played in 97-degree heat, was the season opener for both teams.

A bit of NCAA history will move closer to reality this weekend - and it will not occur within the United States. Soccer, women's volleyball and football teams from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, begin the 2010 season in their second year of Division II candidacy. When the process is complete at least two years from now, Simon Fraser will be the first institution from outside the U.S. and its territories to complete as a full-fledged NCAA member.

The 2010 cross country season begins for seven of the 10 Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams this week in meets at Fairbanks, Billings, Bellingham and Honolulu. Western Washington, which is the defending GNAC men's champion, opens its season at home in the Lake Padden Relays. Western Oregon and a partial team from Seattle Pacific will also compete. The Falcons will also send athletes to Fairbanks to compete in a pair of meets on Thursday and Saturday along with Northwest Nazarene and host Alaska Fairbanks.

Three preseason top 10 nationally ranked teams are among the four opponents Western Washington University faces this weekend as it opens the 2010 volleyball campaign at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Challenge. Matches will be played at host Western Oregon in Monmouth, Ore., and at Central High School in Independence, Ore. The Vikings begin play Friday at 10 a.m. against Metro State CO, rated No.10 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll. They face Humboldt State that evening at 8 p.m. On Saturday, Western meets No.8 UC San Diego at 10 a.m.

There's a buzz in the air around the Western Washington volleyball program this season and sophomore Marlayna Geary can hardly wait to get things started. She rubs her hands together like an excited child and her eyes grow wide while she talks about the Vikings potential this year.

Western Washington University seniors Bennett Grimes, Blake Medhaug and Jordan Welling have come a long ways together. Not just literally with the hundreds and hundreds of miles they have run together during training, practice and competition, but also figuratively in terms of how far they've helped carry the Vikings' men's cross country program during the past three years.

Kellan Brown's sophomore season was a breakout. After scoring 10 goals and notching five assists for the Western Washington men's soccer team, he was honored as a first-team all-Great Northwest Athletic Conference pick and named to the West Region first team. But Brown said he'd trade it all for one thing.

Peanut butter and jelly. Batman and Robin. The pick and roll. Where you find one, you'll usually find the other. And for roughly a decade, where Claire Morgan has played on a soccer field, so has Molly Shannon. The two have coexisted - and thrived - in similar, sweet harmony, too. The duo's days of bowling over opponents with their brand of double trouble dates back to youth soccer with the Whatcom Rangers, and continued through stellar prep careers at Bellingham High School. This fall, Morgan and Shannon will team up once again - and quite possibly for the last time.