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West Region NCAA Tournament page
NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Tournament
First & Second Rounds at Triton Soccer Stadium; La Jolla, Calif.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12 --
(No. 3 seed) Seattle Pacific vs. (6) Chico State, 7:00 p.m. PST
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 --
First-round winner at (2) UC San Diego, 7:00 p.m. PST
Nov. 19 or 20 -- Third round at highest-seeded West Region team, TBA
Nov. 21 or 22 -- Quarterfinals at highest-seeded West Region team, TBA
Dec. 3 -- Semifinals at Tampa, Fla., TBA
Dec. 5 -- Championship Game at Tampa, Fla., 10:30 a.m. PST
The defending national champion Seattle Pacific women’s soccer team will begin its title defense on the road. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Falcons (16-3-1) received the West Region’s No. 3 seed into the 48-team NCAA Division II Tournament field that was announced Monday. The 19th-ranked Falcons travel to La Jolla, Calif. for a first-round clash against No. 6 seed Chico State (8-5-8) on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. That game will be hosted at Triton Stadium by No. 2 seed UC San Diego (14-5-1), which plays the winner on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. SPU defeated the Wildcats 1-0 on Sept. 8 in Chico, Calif. on a 79th-minute penalty kick by freshman Taylor Sawyer. California Collegiate Athletic Association champion Cal State L.A. (17-2-2) drew the top seed in the West Region and will host a second-round game against the first-round winner between No. 4 Cal State Dominguez Hills (13-8-1) and No. 5 Dixie State (14-4). The two winning teams from the West Region will meet at the site of the higher seed for a third-round clash on Nov. 19 or 20 with the victor advancing to the Nov. 21 or 22 quarterfinals.
Live Coverage
There will be no webcast of this week’s games. Fans can follow the progress of each game via LiveStats at:
www.ucsdtritons.com
Tournament History
This marks the seventh straight playoff berth for SPU, which has a 12-5-2 record in all-time postseason games with all 12 wins coming during the last four years. SPU won the 2008 championship with a 1-0 double-overtime win over top-ranked and previously undefeated West Florida. Janae Godoy scored the golden goal in the 108th minute. The Falcons advanced to the title game in 2005 and were national semifinalists in 2007.
Tournament Format
The NCAA Division II Tournament is a single-elimination playoff starting with a 48-team field divided into eight, six-team regions. All games will be played on the campus of a participating school with two sites per region. Two second-round winners from the West and South Central regions will meet at the site of the highest remaining seed from the West for third-round games on Nov. 19 or 20. The winners earn a berth in the Nov. 21 or 22 quarterfinal. The 2009 semifinals and championship game are scheduled for Dec. 3 and 5 at Pepin Stadium in Tampa, Fla., the site of SPU’s 2008 title triumph.
On the Road Again
This is the third time in seven appearances that SPU opens the playoffs on the road. The Falcons lost their inaugural postseason game 2-1 against Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2003 at La Jolla, Calif. SPU beat Seattle University 1-0 in overtime at the 2006 playoffs in La Jolla before losing 3-0 to UC San Diego in the second round.
GNAC Honors
Senior Jocelyn Charette received the 2009 Player of the Year award and Chuck Sekyra, also from league champion Seattle Pacific, was named the Coach of the Year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Charette leads the GNAC in scoring with 37 points on 15 goals and seven assists. This is the fifth time Sekyra has received the conference coaching honor. He coached SPU (16-3-1) to a 9-2-1 record and its sixth GNAC championship. Charette was joined on the all-conference first team by teammates Taylor Sawyer, Maddie Dickinson, Kelsey Jenkins and Amanda Johnson.
The Opponents
Chico State (8-5-8, 6-2-8 CCAA) -- The sixth-seeded Wildcats played a lot of extra soccer this season. Chico participated in nine overtime games, winning one and tying the other eight. Ali Sward leads the Wildcats’ attack with seven goals and eight assists. Goalkeeper Natalie Bensky has eight shutouts and a 0.70 goals against average. SPU has never lost in nine all-time meetings with Chico State. The Falcons won the last five encounters to forge a 7-0-2 series advantage. SPU won 1-0 at Chico on Sept. 8 on a 79th-minute penalty kick by freshman defender Taylor Sawyer.
UC San Diego (14-5-0, 11-5-0 CCAA) -- Defending titlist Seattle Pacific seeks to emulate UC San Diego, the last NCAA Division II repeat champion with back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. The No. 2 seed Tritons feature a balanced attack with 13 different goal scorers helping them outscore opponents 38-14. Shelby Wong leads the way with six goals and five assists. Goalkeeper Kristin Armstrong has six shutouts and a 0.67 goals against average. SPU took a 2-1 series edge with last season’s 3-1 win in Seattle during the second round of the playoffs. All three meetings came in the postseason, with the Tritons winning 3-0 at La Jolla in 2006 and SPU winning 2-0 at home in 2005.
Falcons vs. the Field
The Falcons played two games this season against opponents from the 48-team NCAA Tournament field, registering a 1-1 record. SPU won 1-0 at Chico State (Sept. 8) on a Taylor Sawyer PK, and lost 2-0 at Cal State Dominguez Hills (Oct. 24).
Poll Patter
SPU dropped two places, to No. 19 in this week’s (Nov. 10) national coaches poll, the last regular-season ranking. The defending NCAA Division II champion Falcons opened as the preseason No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas rankings and remained there for the first five weeks of the season. SPU finished 2008 ranked first after beating previously top-ranked and undefeated West Florida in the championship game. West Florida is currently ranked No. 1. SPU is the only GNAC team listed in the national poll.
Streaks Stopped
The Falcons’ 3-2 loss at Western Washington on Oct. 3 stopped a 27-game unbeaten streak, including a 21-game winning skein. The Vikings halted SPU’s streak of 11 consecutive shutouts that was the fourth-longest in all-time NCAA Division II women’s soccer history. WWU’s first goal, in the fifth minute, halted the school-record scoreless streak of 1,048-minutes, 6-seconds compiled by the Falcons.
All in the Family
Like father, like daughter. Sophomore Kelsey Jenkins, a first-team All-GNAC selection, is making the type of impact you might expect from the offspring of a standout professional player. She netted five goals this season and three of them have been game-winning tallies. Jenkins (Kent, Wash./Kentwood) also distributed a team-leading eight assists. Her father, Tommy Jenkins, was a left winger with several English clubs between 1966-75, including a three-season stint from 1969-72 with Southampton of the First Division. Tommy then came to Seattle to play from 1976-79 with the Sounders of the NASL.
Player of the Year
Senior Jocelyn Charette (Lakewood, Wash./Curtis), the 2009 GNAC Player of the Year, leads the team with 15 goals. She netted her fourth career hat trick, and the 14th by an SPU player, in a 6-0 win over Northwest Nazarene (Nov. 7). Charette scored 31 career goals since her transfer from Tampa, where she played as a freshman in 2006. She was the Sunshine State Conference freshman of the year with 21 goals and nine assists for the Spartans. Charette scored six goals in five postseason games, helping Tampa reach the 2006 NCAA semifinals. She returned to Tampa’s Pepin Stadium with SPU for the 2008 Final Four and assisted on both game-winning goals while scoring a semifinal goal of her own. Charette led the Falcons with 15 assists last fall, including an assist in each of the final six outings.
Golden Girl
Senior midfielder Janae Godoy (Yakima, Wash./West Valley) finished the 2008 season in phenomenal fashion. She netted a golden goal in the 108th minute to lift SPU to its first national championship with a 1-0 win over West Florida. That was Godoy’s fifth game-winning goal during the season’s final seven outings, including three deciding tallies in playoff contests. She scored the lone goal in a Nov. 22 quarterfinal victory at Truman State to propel SPU into the Final Four. She also had the decisive goal in the Falcons’ first tournament victory, a 3-1 decision against UC San Diego on Nov. 15 in Seattle. Godoy has proven to be a clutch performer as 11 of her 21 career goals were game winners.
Coach Chuck Sekyra
The 2009 GNAC Coach of the Year, Chuck Sekyra has guided SPU teams to a 134-14-11 record, three Final Four appearances and the 2008 national championship. He directed five of those teams to GNAC championships, and all seven of his squads participated in the NCAA tournament. Sekyra was a defender on the Falcons men’s soccer teams that won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1985 and 1986. He served as an assistant men’s coach at SPU in 1998 and 1999 under Cliff McCrath, then was an assistant women’s coach at Washington for three years before being named head coach of the SPU women in 2003. He is a five-time GNAC Coach of the Year (2003-05, ‘07, ‘09) and earned Regional Coach of the Year honors in both 2005 and 2007. Sekyra received the NSCAA National Coach of the Year award in 2007.