For the second year in a row, No. 17 Westmont (12-5-1) has earned an at-large berth into the NAIA Women’s Soccer National Tournament. The Warriors will play an opening game on Saturday, November 17 against an opponent to be announced tomorrow. Opening round games are held at campus locations and Westmont will also learn tomorrow if it will host Saturday’s game.
“It feels great to have a good portion of our work rewarded,” said Westmont head coach Kristi Kiely. “The team did a lot of really good work this year. The last couple of games we haven’t had as much success. We hope that we have spent the last week trying to figure that out and make the adjustments that we needed to make.
“I believe so much in this group of young women – not only in their efforts, but in their talent. We have been given a chance and hopefully we can run with that chance.”
The Warriors, who received the fourth of six at-large berths, will be making their fifteenth trip to the NAIA National Championship and fourteenth in the last 19 years. The Warriors have won the national championship five times (1995, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003) and boast an impressive 28-5-6 record (.795) in national tournament play.
“The team worked hard last week,” said Kiely about their preparation. “When you don’t know if you are getting in (the national tournament) and the players have bumps and bruises from the entire season and it’s 90 degrees in November in Santa Barbara, I was wondering how I was going to motivate them. But the team was motivated last week. Hopefully we will be able to apply that hard work. We also gave some rest and a chance to get healthy to some players that really needed it.”
Vanguard (16-2), the Golden State Athletic Conference champion is the only other GSAC team in the field of 31 teams.
Winners of the 15 opening round games will meet up in Orange Beach, Alabama beginning on Monday, November 26 for the rest of the tournament. As the recipient of the host berth, the University of Mobile (Ala.) will complete the field of 16 in the final round.
“We know how big the opening round game is in regarding to going to Alabama,” said Kiely. “That is our ultimate goal. Making it to nationals is very different with an opening round game. It’s great to say we made it to nationals, but I don’t think any of us will really feel like we made it unless we get to Alabama.”
