For the second time in league history, the Big West received multiple bids to the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament as
UC Santa Barbara and
Long Beach State were selected for the 64-team field.
UC Santa Barbara (12-6-3, 5-2-1 Big West) travels to face No. 1 seed Stanford (18-1-1) on Friday at 7:00 pm in a first round matchup. That match will be preceded by Kansas (12-7-2) versus Denver (19-2-2).
Long Beach State (14-4-4, 7-0-1 Big West) was assigned to the site of No. 1 seed UCLA. The 49ers battle San Diego (14-4-2) in a first round contest at 8:00 pm on Friday at Drake Stadium. The host Bruins (18-0-2) meet Fresno State (11-8-2) at 5:30 pm in the first match of the evening. Second round action takes place on Sunday at 1:00 pm.
UC Santa Barbara earned the conference's automatic NCAA berth as a result of winning last week's Big West Tournament for the first time in school history. After playing to 1-1 ties through regulation and two overtimes, the Gauchos won penalty kick shootouts against Cal Poly (5-4) and Long Beach State (6-5) to advance to their first NCAA Tournament since 1991.
Long Beach State, the Big West regular season champion, is appearing in the program's first NCAA Tournament after receiving an at-large berth from the Selection Committee. The 49ers have won a school record-tying 14 games and went unbeaten in Big West play with a 7-0-1 record. LBSU reached the championship game of the Big West Tournament for the first time after successive semifinal setbacks in the three previous seasons.
The 49ers are one of seven schools making their first NCAA Tournament appearance. The others are Army, Belmont, Morehead State, Northern Arizona, Northeastern and South Dakota State.
The Big West sent two teams to the NCAA postseason in 2005 when Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside participated. The Titans ended up advancing to the Sweet 16 that year.
UCSB head coach Paul Stumpf is one win away from collecting No. 100 for his career. In his 10th season at UCSB, Stumpf owns an overall record of 99-75-24. The Gauchos have reached double-digit victories for the fifth time in his tenure. With a win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Stumpf would tie his all-time best for most victories in a season (13).
This is the eighth all-time NCAA Tournaement appearance for UCSB. The Gauchos made previous appearances in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991. They own an all-time record of 5-7 in the NCAA Tournament. UCSB is 6-4-2 all-time against Stanford, but the two teams have not met since 1994.
LBSU is 0-6 all-time against San Diego, including a 1-0 loss to the Toreros on Oct. 8.