Burnaby bound: MSUB women clinch berth in GNAC Championships

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Saturday, October 31, 2015 Burnaby bound: MSUB women clinch berth in GNAC Championships

After defeating Central Washington 1-0 Saturday, MSUB tensely awaits the results of a deciding match at Simon Fraser and earns the fourth and final berth into the conference tournament.

BILLINGS, Mont. – For the second season in-a-row, and third time in the last four years, MSUB has earned a spot in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships as the No. 4 seed and will challenge No. 1 Western Washington University next Thursday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. Mountain time in the opening round at Terry Fox Field on the SFU campus.

Entering play Saturday, the Montana State University Billings women’s soccer team only half-controlled its fate.

Sitting in a three-way tie for fourth place in the GNAC standings, MSUB knew that it had to win its final regular-season match against Central Washington in order to remain alive in the hunt for a GNAC tournament berth.

Thanks to the fourth game-winning goal of the year by freshman Alycia Wright, MSUB did its part and shut out CWU 1-0 Saturday afternoon on Senior Day. The rest was out of the Yellowjackets’ hands.

MSUB’s victory effectively eliminated CWU from the playoff picture, but Simon Fraser University held the tiebreaker over MSUB and could still have clinched the final spot with a win over Western Oregon. Watching the match in Burnaby, B.C. – the site of the 2015 GNAC Championships – from Billings on Saturday evening, the Yellowjackets erupted into celebration when the game went final with the score reading 2-1 in favor of the Wolves.

The Yellowjackets finished the regular season with a record of 8-6-2, and completed GNAC play with a mark of 6-5-1 for 19 points. MSUB shook off a three-game losing skid in early October to win three of its final four matches and force its way into the conference tournament.

In addition to WWU, No. 2 seed Concordia University and No. 3 seed Seattle Pacific University will compete for the GNAC tournament title, which provides an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II West Region Championships running Nov. 12-14 at a site to be determined.

MSUB finished in second place in the GNAC a season ago, before losing to Seattle Pacific 1-0 in the opening round of the GNAC Championships. The Yellowjackets advance to the tournament title game in 2012, defeating Seattle Pacific 1-0 in the first round before falling to Western Washington 2-0.

This season marks the first that the conference tournament will be held at SFU, as the previous three championships took place at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash. After WWU won the first tournament in 2012, SPU defeated the Vikings in penalty kicks in each of the last two tournaments.

MSUB’s hopes of making its first NCAA regional appearance since the 2010 season are still alive, as the ‘Jackets could earn a berth by winning the conference tournament. Tickets to the tournament are available online with credit card payments, and will be available on-site with cash-payment only (U.S. and Canadian currency accepted).

The season will continue for MSUB seniors Katlyn Lokay, Ashely Marra, Teegan Koster, and Elizabeth Howard, who were each honored prior to kickoff on Saturday as they competed in their final regular-season match for the ‘Jackets.

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