NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Tournament
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The 11-year wait is over and the Bridgewater State University women's soccer team has returned to the national stage.
By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The 11-year wait is over and the Bridgewater State University women's soccer team has returned to the national stage.
For the first time since 2013, the Bears are taking part in the NCAA Division 3 tournament, and their first assignment is a significant challenge.
BSU will open on Saturday at 11 a.m. against 10th-ranked The College of New Jersey, one of four unbeaten teams in Division 3, at Lions Stadium in Ewing, N.J.
The Bears made the bus trip earlier this week to the suburb of Trenton, N.J., for their first NCAA tourney game since losing to 13th-ranked Middlebury College on Nov. 16, 2013.
BSU, one of 43 automatic qualifiers in the field of 64 teams, will be facing a program that won NCAA titles in 1993, 1994 and 2000 and finished second five times, including 2021 when seven current players were on the roster.
The Lions are 17-0-2 this season, going 9-0 at home, and have won 12 straight games since back-to-back ties with nationally ranked Johns Hopkins and Stevens in September.
While BSU is making its fourth appearance in the NCAAs, The College of New Jersey has reached the national tourney for a 32nd time.
The Lions have outscored opponents, 51-7, this season and have a 203-52 advantage in shots on goal. They rank eighth in the nation in total shots per game (22.9) and are 14th with a 0.37 goals against average.
It will be a formidable task for BSU, which also made the NCAAs in 2002, 2003 and 2013. This is the first time the Bears are meeting a team from outside of New England in the national tourney.
BSU (12-4-3) advanced by winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament last Sunday, edging Westfield State, 3-2.
Now, the Bears are looking for just their second NCAA tourney win, the other coming over Western New England on penalty kicks in the opening round in 2002.
BSU has accomplished a goal of getting back to the NCAAs, and now it wants more.
"It's always been, let's win the championship, that's the first thing," said coach Yasmina Carvalho. "But we want to be one of the first teams out of the MASCAC to make it to at least the third round.
"We're not really saying, we made it, this is cool, here we are in the dance and whatever happens, happens. We want to be successful there and we want to keep rolling as long as we can. I don't think anyone wants this season to end."
The Bears are 9-1-2 since late September and have combined a balanced offense with a stingy defense.
BSU has three of the top scorers in the MASCAC in senior Sydney Dewhurst (East Bridgewater, Mass.), junior Olivia Robarge (Pepperell, Mass.) and graduate student Emily McCormack (East Bridgewater, Mass.). They have combined for 32 goals and 22 assists.
The defense allowed three goals in MASCAC regular-season games with junior goalkeeper Logan Levesque (Bristol, R.I.) among the leaders in the conference.
The College of New Jersey has balanced scoring, led by Victoria D'Imperio with 13 goals and Alyssa Alfano with four goals and 10 assists.
The Lions are sturdy on defense, posting seven straight shutouts before Montclair State scored a goal in the championship game of the New Jersey Athletic Conference tourney.
The College of New Jersey has not lost more than three games in the past eight seasons, going 138-12-13 in that stretch. The Lions lost to Tufts University in the second round a year ago and to Christopher Newport, 2-0, in the 2021 championship game.
BSU has been riding high for a week with Carvalho becoming the program's all-time winningest coach last Friday night, the NCAA tourney berth being clinched on Sunday and the team learning its opponent on Monday afternoon.
"It's a great experience for them," said Carvalho of the trip to New Jersey. "They are excited about the entire experience and I'm happy they get to experience this because they've worked so hard.
"If you came to every practice this season or the non-traditional practices in February and March and April, you would see how hard this team works and they deserve everything."
The tournament appearance will only help when the recruiting season heats up as the Bears have a trip to the NCAAs to point to for prospective players.
"It's huge," said Carvalho. "You think about student-athletes in high school who want to play for successful programs. We've always been a winning program, we just never had that final step. Now we can add that to our resume and say we're always in the postseason and now we're champions and going to the NCAAs."
The winner of the game between BSU and The College of New Jersey will play on Sunday at 1 p.m. against either 18th-ranked Johns Hopkins are Little East Conference champion Southern Maine in the round of 32.
"I'm so happy for this team," said McCormack, a transfer from UMass Amherst. "It's a good chance to see what we can do. We're going out of our conference. We could definitely do some damage, I think. We can do pretty well."
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