• Complete Release (pdf)
     • NCAA Tournament West Region page

NCAA DIVISION II WOMEN'S SOCCER TOURNAMENT
1st & 2nd Rounds at Interbay Stadium; Seattle, Wash.
( LiveStats for Both Games: www.sidearmstats.com/spu/wsoc/index.htm )

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 --
(4) Cal State L.A. vs. (5) Montana State Billings, 3:00 p.m. PST

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13 --
First-round winner at (1) Seattle Pacific, 1:00 p.m. PST

Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Seattle Pacific will play at home Saturday to start its eighth straight foray into the women's soccer playoffs. The ninth-ranked Falcons (15-1-2) received the No. 1 seed in the West Region for the 48-team NCAA Division II Tournament field. SPU, which brings a nine-game unbeaten streak into the postseason, received a first-round bye and will await its opponent for a 1 p.m. second-round matchup on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Interbay Stadium. No. 4 seed Cal State L.A. (15-3-1) and No. 5 Montana State Billings (12-5-1) play a first-round contest on Thursday, Nov. 11 at 3 p.m. in Seattle for the right to meet SPU.

Live Coverage
There will be no webcast of these NCAA playoff games. Fans can follow the West Region games via LiveStats at: www.sidearmstats.com/spu/wsoc/index.htm

Ticket Talk
Tickets for NCAA Tournament games can be purchased at the gate on game day and are $7 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. Interbay Stadium is located just off the Dravus Street exit of 15th Avenue, at 3027 17th Ave. W., Seattle 98119. For more information please contact the SPU Ticket Office at: (206) 281-2085.

The Rest of the West
On the other side of the West Region bracket, Pacific West Conference champion BYU-Hawaii (14-1-2) drew the No. 2 seed and will host a second-round game against the first-round winner between No. 3 UC San Diego (14-2-3) and No. 6 San Francisco State (11-4-5). The West Region's two second-round winners will meet at the site of the highest remaining seed from the South Central Region for a third-round clash on Nov. 18. That victor advances to the Nov. 20 quarterfinals. The top two seeds in the South Central are St. Edward's (16-1-1) and Central Missouri (18-0-0). Defending NCAA Division II champion Grand Valley State (17-1-2) is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region.

Home Sweet Home
The SPU women last hosted playoff games in 2008, and parlayed the home field advantage into a run to the national championship. The Falcons compiled a 6-1-2 record in home NCAA playoff games. They have a 6-1-1 record this season at Interbay Stadium where they lost just once in the last 51 home games. SPU suffered a 1-0 setback against Western Washington on Sept. 30, halting a 45-game home unbeaten streak. The Falcons compiled a 46-1-4 home record since their previous setback (Sept. 30, 2006 vs. Seattle University), including a perfect 15-0 mark in 2007, 11-0-2 in 2008 and 11-0-1 last season.

Tournament History
This marks the eighth straight playoff berth for SPU, which has a 12-5-3 record in all-time postseason games with all 12 wins coming during the last five tournaments. The Falcons won the 2008 championship with a 1-0 double-overtime triumph over top-ranked and undefeated West Florida. Janae Godoy scored the golden goal in the 108th minute. SPU advanced to the Final Four in three of the last five years, playing in the 2005 and 2008 title games.



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 South Central for third-round games on Nov. 18. The winners earn a berth in the Nov. 20 quarterfinal. The 2010 semifinals and championship game are scheduled for Dec. 2 and 4 at Frazier Stadium in Louisville, Ky.

Early Exit
The Falcons were eliminated from last year's playoffs in a first-round NCAA game played in San Diego, Calif. They battled Chico State to a scoreless tie through regulation and two, 10-minute overtimes before falling 4-3 in the penalty-kick tiebreaker. That was SPU's first opening-round ouster since a 2-1 loss to Cal State Dominguez Hills in its inaugural NCAA appearance in 2003.

Quoting Coach Sekyra
“Our team all year has played with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder after that loss last year. I think that's why we're sitting No. 1. I would expect my team and these ladies to come out with the goal of going way beyond (the first game). It's wonderful, we are strong at home. It's something that is a great advantage obviously to have two teams come play on Thursday and be able to watch them and rest a little bit and play the winner on Saturday on our home field, in front of our home crowd and our families.”

Coach Chuck Sekyra
In his eighth season, Chuck Sekyra has guided Seattle Pacific to a remarkable 149-15-14 record, three Final Four appearances and the 2008 national championship. He directed six of those teams to GNAC championships, and all eight of his squads participated in the NCAA tournament. His Falcons advanced to the 2005 championship game. Sekyra was a defender on the SPU 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. Sekyra was named GNAC Coach of the Year five times (2003-05, '07, '09) and the Regional Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2007. He received the NSCAA National Coach of the Year award in 2007.

Falcons vs. the Field
Seattle Pacific played three games this season against opponents from the 48-team NCAA Tournament field, registering a 2-0-1 record. The Falcons defeated Montana State Billings twice (3-0 & 2-1 in overtime) and tied 0-0 at BYU-Hawaii.

Prospective Second-Round Opponents
Cal State L.A. (15-3-1, 13-3-0 CCAA) -- The Golden Eagles had a seven-match winning streak snapped on Sunday by a 1-1 tie with San Francisco State, but they are still unbeaten over their last eight contests. CSULA has outscored its opponents by a 46-16 margin. Liz Franco and Ann Marie Tangorra lead the team in scoring with 14 goals and 10 assists each. Melinda Barragan was the CCAA Defensive Player of the Year after helping the Golden Eagles yield more than one goal in only three of 19 games. Goalkeeper Gabriella Batmani posted six shutouts and a 0.85 goals against average. SPU won four of the five previous meetings with CSULA, including the last two. The Golden Eagles lone win was a 2-0 neutral site decision in 2006. The Falcons won both Seattle encounters, in 2007 and 2008.

Montana State Billings (12-5-1, 9-5-0 GNAC) -- The GNAC runner-up Yellowjackets are making their inaugural postseason appearance. Heidi Greenback scored seven goals to lead the MSUB attack that compiled a 29-17 scoring advantage over opponents. Freshman goalkeeper Sabrina Grandke-Bawab has seven shutouts and a 0.78 goals against average. SPU won all 10 meetings with the Yellowjackets, including a 2-1 overtime decision on Oct. 16 in Billings that was decided by Megan Lindsay's 95th-minute golden goal. The Falcons were 3-0 victors on Sept. 16 in Seattle. SPU has outscored MSUB 29-3 in all-time meetings.

Potent Offense
Sophomore forward Megan Lindsay leads an SPU attack that has outscored opponents by a combined 45-9 tally. She netted 11 goals, including six during the final four games of the regular season. Junior Brandi Hamre is the top playmaker with nine assists. SPU netted multiple goals in 14 of its 18 games this season.

Poll Patter
The Falcons climbed four spots to No. 9 in this week's (Nov. 9) final regular-season national rankings. They opened the season at No. 17 in the NSCAA poll and climbed as high as No. 5 (Sept. 28). SPU was No. 1 in last year's preseason poll and sustained that spot for five weeks.

Throw-Ins
SPU has not lost a game when it scored first (14-0), led at halftime (10-0) or scored more than one goal (14-0) ... The Falcons won their last eight games, outscoring foes 25-6 during that span ... SPU had a player score multiple goals six times this season, including a hat trick from sophomore Hannah Masson on Sept. 25 ... The Falcons outshot opponents 276-149 and more doubled the shots-on-goal tally with a 156-68 advantage.

Super Shot Stopper
Senior Maddie Dickinson was named the 2010 GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and was the league's first-team goalkeeper. On Oct. 2, Dickinson blanked Simon Fraser to become SPU's career shutout leader. She now has 27 career clean sheets, eclipsing the previous record of 25 established by Jennifer Hull from 2001-04. Dickinson has surrendered just nine goals in 1663 minutes this season. The product of Skyview High School in Vancouver, Wash. was the Sept. 14 GNAC Athlete of the Week. She currently leads the GNAC and ranks No. 13 nationally with a 0.49 goals against average. Dickinson put together a school-record scoreless streak of 1,012-minutes, 12-seconds from 2008-09 that included a 1-0 double-overtime win over West Florida in the 2008 NCAA Division II title game.

Magnificent Megan
Sophomore forward Megan Lindsay was one of two unanimous picks to the first-team All-GNAC squad. She led SPU and ranks No. 2 among conference scorers with 11 goals and also has five assists. Lindsay netted a goal in each of the last four games, amassing six during that span. She is accurate as 45 of her 59 shots went directly on goal.

Conference Honors
Senior goalkeeper Maddie Dickinson received the Defensive Player of the Year award and was one of four SPU first-team selections on the 2010 Great Northwest Athletic Conference squad announced Nov. 9. Falcons collected two other conference awards as forward Kellie Zakrzewski was named the Freshman of the Year and midfielder Kendall Thoreson was the Newcomer of the Year. Zakrzewski was the only freshman on the first-team All-GNAC squad. Thoreson, a Northwestern transfer, was an honorable mention all-league pick. Also among the 11 first-team all-stars were SPU sophomores Megan Lindsay and Brittany Langdon. Falcons Brandi Hamre, Kelsey Jenkins, Taylor Sawyer and Andrea Chan were second-team selections while Becca Woods and Janie Wurth received honorable mention acclaim.

Season Preview
Eight starters returned from SPU's 16-3-2 GNAC champion 2009 squad. One of the starters SPU needed to replace was forward Jocelyn Charette, the 2009 GNAC Player of the Year with 15 goals. Heading the list of returning standouts was senior goalkeeper Maddie Dickinson, an all-region selection after recording nine shutouts and a 0.57 goals against average in 2009. The defense is anchored by sophomore Taylor Sawyer who reaped All-America accolades after her rookie season. The offense features junior midfielder Kelsey Jenkins who netted five goals and a distributed a team-high eight assists. Jenkins was joined on the 2009 first-team All-GNAC squad by senior forward Amanda Johnson. Sophomore forward Megan Lindsay was SPU's second-leading scorer with six goals last season.


Upcoming NCAA Tournament Schedule:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18 --
Third round at highest-seeded West Region team, TBA

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20 --
Quarterfinals at highest-seeded South Central Region team, TBA

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 --
Semifinals at Louisville, Ky., TBA

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4 --
Championship Game at Louisville, Ky., TBA