Good news: Women's Soccer receives NCAA playoff berth

November 09, 2009

The St. Thomas women's soccer team has received a nice reward for its season body of work. Coach Sheila McGill's team was awarded one of 21 at-large berths into the 63-team Division III playoffs.

It's the Tommies' ninth NCAA soccer playoff berth and second in a row.

UST plays Saturday at 7:30 p.m., in Rock Island, Ill., and have a rematch with UW-Stevens Point. That follows a 5 p.m. game between host Augustana (Ill.) and Albion (Mich.)

Brackets will be announced later this morning, but the Tommies are among four MIAC teams and five Minnesota teams in the field. Six of the seven teams in last week's Central Region

Carleton won the conference playoff and took the automatic berth, while Concordia-Moorhead and Macalester also recieived Pool C bids. St. Scholastica of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference received a Pool B bid.

The conference runner-up at 13-5-1, St. Thomas started the season 2-2 without ace forward Erin Sprangers (71 points in 71 career games). The Toms then had an 11-game unbeaten streak (10-0-1) before it lost three one-goal matches to Concordia and Macalester late in the season.

The Tommies went 5-0 vs. Wisconsin state university teams, including a 1-0 victory over UW-Stevens Point.

In Division III men's soccer, conference champion Carleton missed the field after a loss in the playoffs to Macalester. Carleton lost 2-0 in the regular-season finale to St. Olaf, and the Oles received an NCAA bid.

Click here to access NCAA news release:

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/110809aad.html