• Complete Release (pdf)    |    • VIDEO: Brooke  Pingrey
   • NCAA Tournament bracket

NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Tournament
West Region 1st & 2nd Rounds at Harrington Field; Bellingham, Wash.
•Webcast & LiveStats for first two rounds:  http://portal.stretchinternet.com/wwu/
 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10 –
(5) Central Washington vs. (4) Seattle Pacific, 2:00 pm PST
 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12 –
Regional Semifinal: Thursday's winner vs. (1) Western Washington, 1:00 pm PST
 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 -- West Region championship
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 -- NCAA Quarterfinals
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1 -- NCAA Semifinals (Kansas City, Mo.)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3 -- NCAA Championship Game (Kansas City, Mo.)
 
Another playoff berth, another trip to Bellingham. The Seattle Pacific women's soccer team participates in the postseason for the 14th consecutive year and the journey starts the same place as last three years. SPU is the West Region's No. 4 seed in the 48-team NCAA Division II Tournament field. The Falcons (11-4-4) have a first-round clash against No. 5 seed Central Washington (13-5-1) on Thursday, Nov. 10. Kick-off is 2 p.m. at Harrington Field hosted by No. 1 seed Western Washington (19-0-1), which meets the winner on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. The Falcons beat CWU 2-0 last Thursday in a GNAC semifinal.


 
Quoting Coach Busey
"We're super excited. It's a testament to the girls that are on the roster this year for the work that they put in during the course of the last four months. It's also a testament to the quality of the women that have come through the program and established something here that has become a yearly thing for us and something that we really look forward to. Here we go again in terms of the same thing that we went through last week in playing Central. It's going to be a different game. These two teams know each other so well, it will be the fourth time that we have played this year. I'm sure they'll add some wrinkles to what they did the previous three times as we will look to do as well."
 
The Rest of the West
On the other half of the West bracket, UC San Diego (18-2-0) drew the No. 2 seed in the West Region and will host a second-round game on Saturday against Thursday's first-round winner between No. 3 Sonoma State (12-2-3) and No. 6 Azusa Pacific (11-3-4). The victorious second-round teams from the West will meet in a regional championship clash on Nov. 17 at the site of the highest remaining South Central seed. The West Region champion advances to the Nov. 19 national quarterfinals at the same venue.
 
Tournament Format
The NCAA Division II Tournament is a single-elimination playoff starting with a 48-team field divided into eight, six-team regions. The 2016 NCAA semifinals and championship game are scheduled for Dec. 1 and 3 at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Mo. Three-time defending NCAA Division II champion Grand Valley State is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region this year. Western Washington won the 2015 West Region title.
 
SPU Tournament History
SPU's current run of 14 consecutive appearances is tied with West Chester for the longest active playoff streak among Division II women's soccer teams. The Falcons have a 17-11-3 record in all-time postseason games. They won the 2008 NCAA championship with a 1-0 double-overtime triumph over top-ranked and undefeated West Florida. Last season they beat UC San Diego 2-1 in the first round before falling 1-0 to eventual West Region winner Western Washington. The Falcons reached the Final Four on three occasions (2005, 2007, 2008), participating in the 2005 and 2008 national title games.
 
About Seattle Pacific (11-4-4)
The fourth-seeded Falcons had a three-game winning streak halted by a 3-1 loss to Western Washington in the GNAC Tournament championship game (Nov. 5). SPU lost just once this season against a non-playoff team. The offense is outscoring opponents 30-18 paced by the league-leading 12 goals of senior forward Hannah Huesers. The offense also features senior forward Maddie Krauss (4 goals/3 assists). The SPU defense blanked nine foes while allowing just 0.89 goals per game.

 

Fantastic Forward
Senior forward Hannah Huesers leads the GNAC with 12 goals. She was the 2015 conference and West Region Player of the Year and topped the league in scoring in both 2015 (14 goals) and 2014 (15). Huesers ranks second among the school's career scoring leaders with 47 goals, two shy of the standard of 49 established by Sarah Martinez (2004-07). Huesers is third among all-time Falcons with 14 career game-winning goals and tied for third with 103 total points (47 goals & 9 assists).
 
Super Shot Stopper
Falcons goalkeeper Molly Stinson is having a season for the ages. The junior shot-stopper has compiled 102 saves and needs three more to reach the school-record of 105 established by Jennifer Hull in 2001. Stinson already passed Hull by one in the single-game save category, denying 13 shots on Oct. 29 at Concordia. Stinson's career save total of 208 ranks No. 2 all-time at SPU and she has another year to reach the record of 271 set by Hull from 2001-04. 
 
Scouting the NCAA West Region Field
Central Washington (13-5-1) -- The fifth-seeded Wildcats are making their NCAA Tournament debut. They are outscoring opponents 31-19 led by the seven goals of Mackenzie Nolte. Keilin Farrand has five goals and six assists. Goalkeeper Emily Holt compiled six shutouts and a 1.05 goals against average. Central and SPU met three times this season with each winning one and a draw. Wildcats were 1-0 victors on Sept. 24 in Seattle with an 83rd-minute goal from Nolte. The Oct. 4 rematch in Ellensburg resulted in a 1-1 tie.  The Falcons won 2-0 last Thursday (Nov. 3) in a GNAC Tournament semifinal, getting goals from Maddie Krauss and Hannah Huesers. SPU leads the all-time series 23-6-4.
 
Western Washington (19-0-1) -- The top-ranked Vikings won 19 consecutive games after tying 0-0 at Sonoma State in their season opener. They won the last five GNAC regular-season titles. WWU is outscoring opponents 51-6, paced by the eight goals and six assists of Gabriela Pelogi. Goalkeeper Ashley Homer has 12 shutouts and a 0.27 goals against average. Travis Connell, a four-year SPU men's soccer letterman (1991-95), is in his 14th year and owns WWU's all-time mark with 197 coaching wins. The Falcons lead the all-time series 18-14-6 despite not beating Western since Oct. 27, 2012, covering a span of 13 games during which WWU went 10-0-3. The Vikings made two penalty kicks to win this season's first meeting 4-0 on Oct. 20 in Seattle. Western beat SPU 3-1 in Saturday's (Nov. 5) GNAC final and was a 1-0 victor in last year's NCAA West Region semifinal. These rivals met three times in the NCAA playoffs and WWU leads 2-1-0.
 
GNAC Honors
The GNAC all-conference squad was released Nov. 1 and SPU's Hannah Huesers was a first-team selection. Kelly Gould was named to the second team while Maddie Krauss, Brooke Lancaster and Kaytlin Willis were honorable mention picks.
 
Throw-Ins
SPU posted a 2-0-4 record in overtime games this year. The school record of seven overtime contests came in 2005 ... Six Falcons have started all 19 games (Holm, Huesers, Krauss, Lancaster, Sjothun, Stinson) ... Two of the Falcons four losses this season came against top-raned Western Washington ... SPU has a 10-0-3 record when scoring first this season ...  ... Thirteen different SPU players netted at least one goal this year and 17 picked up at least one point with a goal and/or assist … SPU boasts a 9-2-2 record in all-time NCAA opening games.

 

Coach Busey
Arby Busey is in his 11th year on the Seattle Pacific staff and his second as head coach. In 2015, he directed the Falcons to a 14-5-2 record, third-place GNAC finish (7-3-2) and GNAC Tournament finals berth. SPU advanced to the West Regional semifinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs. Busey has a 25-9-6 record as the third coach in the 16-year history of the program. That list includes the two-year stint of inaugural coach Bobby Bruch, who posted a 21-14-3 mark from 2001-02, and the 12-year run of Chuck Sekyra who was 209-34-20 from 2003-2014. From his assistant post from 2006-14, Busey helped the Falcons to an impressive 95-30-12 record and playoff appearances each season. SPU won the 2008 NCAA Division II championship and reached the 2007 national semifinals during his tenure. He is a 1993 graduate of Villanova and was the Idaho head coach from 2002-04.
 
2016 Preview
Seven starters return from the 2015 NCAA Tournament team, including players that accounted for 23 goals for SPU, which outscored opponents 35-17. The Falcons registered a 14-5-2 overall record last year and placed third in the conference standings with a 7-3-2 mark before advancing to the GNAC Tournament championship game. They opened the playoffs with a 2-1 victory over UC San Diego before falling 1-0 in the West Regional semifinal at Western Washington. Heading the list of returnees is senior forward Hannah Huesers, the 2015 GNAC Player of the Year. She netted 14 goals to claim the league scoring title for the second straight season. Senior midfielder Emma Holm was an honorable mention All-GNAC honoree in 2015. The defense is backed by junior goalkeeper Molly Stinson who was credited with seven of the team's nine shutouts while compiling an outstanding 0.81 goals against average. Adding to the talent base are six veterans that each drew at least one start last year, along with six incoming freshmen.