The NCAA didn’t allow for much tension or suspense to build up Monday afternoon at the Walter Pyramid, where members of the Long Beach State women’s soccer team gathered to learn the fate of their season.
Just a few minutes into the NCAA selection show, the 49ers heard their name called and found that they would be traveling to Santa Clara for the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Screams and hugs of joy and relief immediately followed from a team whose trip to the big dance was hardly set in stone. Sitting at 40th in the end-of-season Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), LBSU (12-7, 5-4 Big West Conference) had just an outside chance at reaching its fourth NCAA tournament in five years.
“The girls were really, really fired up,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “This team, they stayed together through everything…and I think a little bit of karma went their way this time.”
LBSU was the fourth team out of 64 to be announced by an NCAA committee assigned to fill out the tournament bracket. The 49ers will face No. 18 Santa Clara (11-3-6) on the road Saturday afternoon and then either No. 1 Stanford or Idaho State the next weekend if they win their first-round match against the Broncos.
“I think Santa Clara is going to be a tough opponent,” Ingrassia said. “I’ve watched them play a couple times, and we played them two years ago in the tournament. We’re going to go home and study film and take it from there.”
The ‘Niners have endured a roller coaster season that has toyed with their playoff hopes since Big West play began. After opening the year with three straight wins and rising to No. 11 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) rankings, they dropped consecutive matches to highly-ranked opponents in Brigham Young and Texas A&M on the road. Those losses, however, may have done more to strengthen the 49ers’ playoff chances than hurt them.
“We’ve been really trying to up the schedules, and that’s helped us,” Ingrassia said. “We were 2-3 against top 25 teams, and those are big wins. Obviously there’s a human element to every committee, so you don’t know what happens behind closed doors, but we knew that we definitely had done enough to be considered. It was just a matter of waiting and seeing how things went.”
Things went according to plan during the selection show viewing on Monday, but that was just about all that has worked out well for LBSU this year.
Following a performance in nonconference play that earned the 49ers the nation’s seventh-best RPI, LBSU found itself stumbling against Big West competition thanks in part to the forced inclusion of some of the younger and less-experienced players on the roster. Because of a pair of season-ending knee injuries to regular starters Marie MacKenzie and Jordan Nelson, freshman Hannah Sanders and first-time starter Renee Mendiola were called upon for significant minutes during conference play.
“We were rolling along nicely, and then we became super young in a hurry, and we had to start three or four or five freshmen,” Ingrassia said. “It’s the wrong time of the year to be having those issues where you’re having brand new people play huge roles.”
LBSU narrowly missed out on the Big West tournament, where it could have won a conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. A trio of overtime losses at home forced the 49ers to rely on their strong RPI and early success to get them to the big dance.
That ended up being just enough, however, as the ‘Niners were placed in the same group as top-ranked Stanford and Santa Clara, which ranks 11th in the country in RPI. A repeat of last year’s trip to the elite eight will require at least one major upset.
Also among the 64 tournament participants is Big West champion Cal State Northridge. After defeating Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton in the conference tournament, the Matadors earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. They will take on No. 6 San Diego State in the first round.
This will be the third consecutive year that the Big West has sent at least two of its members to the NCAA tournament.
“From top to bottom, all of [the Big West] coaches have really made an effort to schedule better,” Ingrassia said. “We’ve began to get results, and I think that’s really helped. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.”
Senior leaders Nadia Link and Alex Balcer will get at least one more chance to build upon their LBSU legacies when they kick off against Santa Clara on Saturday afternoon. Link, who recently won the Big West Offensive Player of the Year award, needs just one more goal to set an LBSU record.
“This is probably the most amazing team I’ve ever played on, and the memories that I’ve had with this team, so far are one of the best memories of my life,” Link said after what easily could have been a season-ending loss to CSUN last Sunday. “This is the highlight of my life so far, and I’ll never forget it.”
Link, as always, will be tasked with leading the offensive effort against the Broncos, who have posted nine shutouts this year. Balcer, who earned first team All-Big West honors with Link, will be looking to shut down Santa Clara’s dynamic forwards, Sofia Huerta and Julie Johnston.
Huerta and Johnston have combined for 12 goals and eight assists. The Broncos have also received significant statistical contributions from midfielders Lauren Matheson and Dani Weatherholt, who have each provided four goals and two assists.
The 49ers and Broncos will kick off their 2012 NCAA tournament campaigns on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara.