Women's Soccer | 11/8/2016 5:56:00 PM
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Nov. 8) – For the first time in program history, the Central Washington University soccer team is headed to the NCAA West Regional.
"It's a tremendous step forward for us as a program and a great accomplishment for our group of girls," CWU Head Coach Mike Farrand said. "It's a testament to our alumni who established who we are."
The five seed Wildcats are joined by one seed Western Washington and five seed Seattle Pacific in Bellingham, Washington.
It is the fourth-time the Wildcats will face Seattle Pacific this season. During the regular season Central finished 1-0-1, taking a 1-0 victory in Seattle on
Mackenzie Nolte's 83
rd minute goal and drawing 1-1 in Ellensburg.
During the GNAC semi-finals, the Wildcats fell 2-0, despite firing 15 shots.
"In the GNAC semis we had some great chances that didn't quite get there," Farrand said. "We need to be a little more deliberate and focus on how we are built to play instead of playing more direct with Seattle Pacific."
The final three regular season games were not overly kind to the Wildcats. They dropped a pair of matches to Western Washington and Concordia University, before notching a 1-0 win against Saint Martin's.
"Toward the end of the season, and you look at who we played on the way out, we had some good competition against Concordia and Western before heading into the GNAC tournament," Farrand added. "We might not have had the scoring we saw earlier this season, but we are built around ball possession and we did a good job possessing the ball and playing our style of soccer."
In their win against Seattle Pacific on Sept. 24, the Wildcats took 12 shots while the Falcons tallied 17. Goalkeeper
Emily Holt made four saves, before Nolte took a pass from
Michaela Wallace and beat Molly Stinson low on the left side.
In Ellensburg, on Oct. 4, Central opened an early 1-0 lead.
Keilin Farrand found Nolte on a ball played over the top and Nolte beat Stinson again. The Falcons leveled the score early in the second half on a goal from Hannah Huesers. Overtime expired without either side finding the game winner.
"For any program, I'm not really sure it matters who you play as it's do or die for everyone," Farrand noted. "Arby [Busey] and SPU have had sustained success at the NCAA postseason level. They will be another tough test and it will be another very competitive game between us."
Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Harrington Field in Bellingham, Wash. Live stats and video are available at wildcatsports.com courtesy of Western Washington's Athletic Communication department.
