Monday, November 9, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – As expected, the Seattle Pacific men’s soccer team was selected to the NCAA Championships as one of six teams from the region, announced Monday on the NCAA Selection Show.

Seattle Pacific was chosen as the No. 2 seed and receives a bye in the first round of the tournament. Cal State Dominguez Hills and Fresno Pacific will play on Thursday, Nov. 12 at Seattle Pacific's Interbay Stadium, while SPU will play the winner of the match in the second round on Saturday, Nov. 14.

The Falcons clinched the GNAC Championship on the final day of regular season play with a 3-0 win over Saint Martin’s on Saturday. Seattle Pacific finished with an overall record of 14-1-3, entering the tournament on a four-game winning streak and undefeated at home.

Seattle Pacific reaches the national tournament for the fifth straight year. Last season, they were the No. 1 seed in the West Region, but fell in the third round to Cal State Los Angeles.

This season, the Falcons were led by a defense that allowed just eight goals in 18 matches and only allowed more than one goal in a match once. The team started the season by posting six straight shutouts to set a new program record with consecutive shutouts to start a season. Goalkeeper Cody Lang led the conference with a 0.47 goals against average and .867 save percentage and was second with nine shutouts.

Offensively, the Falcons struggled to score goals consistently in the early season, but finshed with 22 goals in their final nine matches to finish the year +24 in goal differential. Ian Adams and Danny Olivas led the team with five goals and 14 points each, while Gabe Kellum and Mori Tsuchiya each had four goals.

Cal Poly Pomona received the No. 1 seed for the West Region. They await the winner of Stanislaus State and Cal State Los Angeles in the second round. The Falcons have not played any of the five other teams in the region yet this season.