April 15, 2026 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
New coach Nate Ulness has only been in Monmouth since last month, but he and the Wolves women’s soccer team have gotten straight to work, looking to improve on one of the best seasons in the team’s history. This year, that means a program record six-game winning streak and an appearance in the NCAA tournament. On April 4, the Wolves made the half-hour trip down to Corvallis to open their spring season against the Oregon State Beavers, and while they lost a close game 1-0, Ulness was proud of the team’s effort. He gave the players credit, saying, “Once we settled in and did what we had worked on and talked about, they did a really, really good job keeping it compact. First thing the Oregon State coaching staff says to us after the match is, ‘That was really organized for five days, good job.’ That’s them, they did it.” He continued, saying, “Do we have moments we want back? Yeah, we’ll go through that on film, but overall a lot of really good things to come away with.”
Ulness joined Western after spending four seasons at Eastern Washington as an assistant coach. In addition to his time with the Eagles, Ulness has also coached at the junior college and high school levels, where he won four total state championships at Century High School in North Dakota, two for the boys’ program and two for the girls’ program. Ulness started his career at the University of Mary, where he played from 2009 to 2012 and was given a role as a graduate assistant. He was also the founder of the Gillette College women’s soccer program at the junior college level, where in just three seasons he would become the youngest head coach ever to take a team to the NJCAA National Tournament. “I learned a lot about what it takes to start and run a program. I hope every person at some point does it once, because you learn a lot of things,” Ulness said of his time at Gillette.
Away from the pitch, coach Ulness — who grew up in North Dakota and Minnesota — is an avid hockey fan. He supports the Minnesota Wild and enjoys playing the sport as well. He’s, of course, a soccer fan as well, supporting the U.S. National Team, Newcastle United of the Premier League and Espanyol of La Liga. Ulness explained that his fandom of Espanyol came about when he was still coaching with the University of Mary on a spring tour to Spain and he had the chance to attend a Copa Del Rey semifinal against Bilbao in an atmosphere he described as “unreal.” He also shared that he sometimes attends Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey matches through his father-in-law, who is a season ticket holder. “I was at the Stanley Cup Finals when they won it with the cup in the rink. For anybody that’s a true hockey fan, that’s a bucket list item,” he said.
Aside from sports, he enjoys the outdoors, hunting, fishing and spending time with his wife and his dogs. He’s also enjoyed his time in town so far: “I love the sense of community that is Monmouth, Independence. Being able to walk everywhere any time of the day and just the comfortability, the welcoming, how nice people are, they smile, they say hi. You can go anywhere and they ask questions about you because they are genuinely curious. They’re not just going through the motions, they want to know who is involved in their community, who is here and they want everybody to feel welcome. I really love that.”
Ulness also shared a bit about the local food he’s tried so far, listing Gilgamesh, Yeasty Beasty, Habebah and Arena Sports Bar as some of his favorites for food and named Bugles as his favorite spot for coffee. “That was like the first thing I asked the girls is ‘where’s the best coffee place?’And they said, ‘You have to go to Bugles,’ and I haven’t looked anywhere else since.” However, he made it very clear that if any other local coffee places reading this article would like him to stop in and give it a shot, he’s willing to do so and will give a fair review.
The Wolves continue their spring season April 18 at Portland State and will follow that up with a 7-a-side tournament at the University of Oregon May 2 before returning to Monmouth May 9. Through the spring, the team will continue doing the important work of implementing the style of play they’d like to utilize, something Ulness said the team is doing a great job of learning. There will be a continued emphasis on getting everybody on the same page, something that will be important to do heading into the fall when the team brings on nine first-year players, with even more new additions being possible by way of transfers. With captains Jada Foster, Lauren Rose and Ally Beavers all graduating, it’ll also be important for the team to find which players will step into leadership roles for the new additions. Coach Ulness explained that there’s been a lot of different players stepping up in different moments and that while it remains to be seen which players specifically emerge as team leaders, they’ve done a great job of leading each other so far.
Overall, Ulness expressed a lot of excitement for the program as well as appreciation for those who helped get him here. He expressed gratitude to “all the people in the coaching industry, eternally grateful to my wife and the support that she gives me and her excitement for us to be fully moved down here and be involved with the team and do all those things, so near and dear, love her to death and just can’t thank her enough for this opportunity. And obviously Randi [Lydum] for putting the trust in me as well too. So it’s been great.”
Contact the author at howlsports@mail.wou.edu
