ST. GEORGE — On Monday night, the Dixie State women’s soccer team earned their second bid to the postseason as a four-year institution. The Trailblazers finished the year with a 10-3-5 overall record, putting them in third place in the RMAC standings.
Following their third place finish in the regular season, the Trailblazer lost to Metro State University of Denver by way of penalty kicks in the RMAC women’s soccer championship tournament quarterfinals. Despite the tough loss, Dixie State did enough to earn themselves an at-large bid into the national tournament.
“This is a tremendous honor, our team has worked so hard (for the NCAA berth),” Dixie State Head Coach Steve Golas said in a release. “We talked about this from day one that this was a goal, and to see their faces and to see them celebrate was fun, but we’re not done. Obviously getting (to the NCAA Tournament) is the big goal, but now that we are there we’re here to compete, and I think that’s going to be a big thing for us trying to drive that home over the next couple days.”
The last time the team qualified for the national tournament was when they were a member of the PacWest conference in 2009. The Trailblazers won the conference title that season, earning them the No. 5 seed in the west region. They lost in the first round the No. 4 seeded Cal State Dominguez Hills.
This year the Trailblazers were selected as the No. 5 seed in the south central region, as they will take on the No. 4 seed, Texas Women’s University. The game will be played on Friday at 1 p.m. in Colorado Springs. University of Colorado Colorado Spring is the top seed in the region and is hosting the games.
The winner of the Dixie State and Texas Women’s University game will play Colorado Springs on Sunday at 1 p.m. The only other team to qualify for the national tournament, other than Dixie and Colorado Springs, is the No. 3 seeded Colorado School of Mines.
“Our team has battled and persevered through so many injuries and so many other tumults this year, it’s amazing to see where they have put themselves,” Golas said. “We’re incredibly excited, we’re hoping to not be done yet, and we’re not satisfied. We’re looking forward to getting to the Springs and hopefully making a little bit of noise there now.”
The third round and quarterfinals will be played at campus sites Dec. 5-8, while the Division II college cup will be hosted at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Dec. 12-14.
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