Women's soccer prepares for NCAA tournament

By Cecile Nguyen

With no chance to defend last year's WCC championship, the Santa Clara women's soccer team is instead shifting its focus to the upcoming NCAA tournament.

The women are currently fourth in the West Coast Conference standings with a 3-3-0 record and will play their final regular season game at home this Saturday versus St. Mary's.

"The NCAA tournament is our second life," Head Coach Jerry Smith said. "We're dead in the water in the WCC. Our focus now is to prepare ourselves for the most important phase of the season."

Smith and the rest of the coaching staff have no doubt that they will make the tourney, confident that their good wins far outweigh their bad losses and that the selection committee will look favorably upon that.

Key games for the Broncos include the 7-1 slaughter of then-No. 2 Notre Dame, and ties against Virginia, Rutgers, UCLA and then-No. 1 Stanford.

Assuming they are selected, Santa Clara will be appearing in their 19th consecutive NCAA tournament this season. The Broncos have also made the second most Final Four appearances with 10, behind only North Carolina.

The Broncos' goal, like every other season, is to make the NCAA's Final Four. This year, however, injuries will undoubtedly be a major factor in determining how far the Broncos are able to advance.

"This is a more challenging year because we lost five players and have a smaller roster," Smith said.

In preparation for the postseason, Smith said the players need to rest up and recuperate after playing one of the toughest schedules in the country this season.

"We gave them three days off to get away from the game," said Associate Head Coach Gregg Murphy. "They're emotionally and physically tired."

Smith added that the road-weary players are also banged up after playing too many minutes because of the smaller active roster.

"We managed with 12 players before earlier in the season, and we've been put under any situation possible," senior midfielder Chioma Igwe said. "I don't think any college team has ever had 12 players play against the No. 1 seed in the country (Stanford)."

With the NCAA tournament set to begin on Nov. 16, Murphy said that he hopes Santa Clara will get a good draw during the selection process.

"Most of the best teams are in the west, and they face each other early and beat each other up," Murphy said. "I hope for the best draw possible, perhaps in the top 16 seeds."

No matter the opponent, Bronco players remain confident about postseason play and are ready to face the challenges of the single-elimination tournament. The Broncos were upset in the first round of last years tournament by USC.

"I'm looking forward to proving everybody wrong ," Igwe said. "We all want the same thing, and we've all dealt with many obstacles, but I know our team will step up."

Contact Cecile Nguyen at (408) 551-1918 or cnguyen5@scu.edu.