Wednesday, November 12, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two GNAC teams have made the field of 48 selected to compete in the NCAA tournament.

Western Washington earned the No. 1 overall seed in the West Region while Seattle Pacific was chosen as a fifth seed.

The Falcons knocked off the Vikings in penalty kicks at the GNAC tournament championship game on Saturday to reach the NCAA tournament for the 12th year in a row.

WWU received an at-large bid, but was selected to host the first two rounds as the West Region’s top seed. The Vikings also received a bye in the first round.

On Thursday, Seattle Pacific will travel to Harrington Field in Bellingham, Wash. to battle the fourth seeded Cal State Stanislaus Warriors in the opening round.

The Warriors are 13-4-1 on the year and received an at-large bid to the tournament.

Even though they did not reach their conference tournament, missing it by one point, the Warriors faced strong competition in the California Collegiate Athletic Association including playing the two seed Cal State L.A. and the three seed Cal Poly Pomona.

CSUS was ranked as high as third in the nation earlier in the season when it started 7-0 with victories over Cal Baptist, Azusa Pacific and GNAC member Central Washington.

The Falcons and the Warriors each beat UC San Diego this year as well as Central Washington and Simon Fraser.

No. 12 Western Washington will play the winner of this match-up on Saturday in Bellingham at 1 p.m.

The Vikings beat Seattle Pacific 2-0 in the second round of the NCAA tournament last season on their way to the national semifinals in Georgia.

A live broadcast for Thursday’s and Saturday’s games, along with live stats, can be found on GNAC.TV.

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.

Other Notes:

• Montana State Billings and Central Washington end their seasons with losses in the GNAC tournament. The Yellowjackets finished above .500 after not accomplishing that feat last year and the Wildcats finished with their third non-losing season in 12 years.

• 52 GNAC women’s soccer players were named to the academic all-conference team last Wednesday. Saint Martin’s led all GNAC schools with 10 on the list while SPU had nine.

• Even though the Falcons won the GNAC championship tournament on penalty kicks, the game goes down as a draw in the record books after two scoreless overtimes.