Monday, November 10, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Western Washington women’s soccer team was given a No. 1 seed and Seattle Pacific received the fifth seed as the NCAA tournament field was unveiled Monday afternoon.

Seattle Pacific will face fourth-seed Cal State Stanislaus Thursday at 7 p.m. at Harrington Field in Bellingham in the opening round.  The No. 14 Vikings will play the winner Saturday at 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, second-seed Cal State Los Angeles will also host a first-round game between third-seed Cal Poly Pomona and No. 6 seed Point Loma Nazarene Thursday at 7 before playing the winner Saturday at 2 p.m.

The two second round winners will travel to the highest seeded South Central semifinal qualifier for the West Region championship game on the following week.  The West Region and South Central winners will then play in the national quarterfinals.

The winner of that contest will travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the NCAA semifinals and possible championship game in December.

Western Washington made it to the national semifinals in Evans, Georgia last year before falling to national runner-up West Florida 2-1 in overtime.

SPU beat WWU in the GNAC championship game on Saturday, winning 5-4 in penalty kicks after drawing 1-1 in regulation. The Falcons earned the GNAC’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament where Western Washington received an at-large bid.

This is the 12th year in a row that the Falcons have made the NCAA tournament.

NCAA WEST REGIONALS

At Bellingham: Thursday - #4 Cal State Stanislaus (13-4-1) vs. #5 Seattle Pacific (12-4-3), 7 p.m.  Saturday - Cal State Stanislaus/Seattle Pacific winner vs. #1 Western Washington (16-0-4), 1 p.m.

At Los Angeles: Thursday - #3 Cal Poly Pomona (13-5-1) vs. #6 Point Loma Nazarene (12-3-1), 7 p.m.  Saturday - Cal Poly Pomona/Point Loma Nazarene winner at Cal State L.A. (16-1-3), 2 p.m.