Virginia Wesleyan to face Williams in first round soccer

VIRGINIA BEACH -- Virginia Wesleyan College's women's soccer Marlins will be in the hunt for the 2011 NCAA Division III national championship.

The Marlins were selected as one of the 64 teams in the national tournament, which begins this weekend across the nation.  Virginia Wesleyan (18-3), the runner-up in the recent Old Dominion Athletic Conference, will travel to Hoboken, New Jersey, to face Massachusetts' Williams College (10-4-3), the runner-up in the New England Small College Athletic Association, on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 1:30 p.m. 

VWC fans unable to make the trip to Hoboken can watch all the action live through http://www.empire8.tv/ or through live stats at http://www.stevensducks.com/livestats/wsoccer/xlive.htm

Stevens Institute of Technology (14-3-3), the host team, will face Massachusetts' Westfield State University (15-3-1) in the other half of the bracket. That game will take place at 11 a.m.  Winners advance to a second round game on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 1 p.m. at Stevens.

Virginia Wesleyan, currently ranked No. 15 nationally, dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 13 Lynchburg College on the Hornets' field in the ODAC title game.  Williams, ranked No. 20, fell 2-1 to No. 8 Amherst College in the NESCAC title contest.  The meeting between the Marlins and the Ephs will be the first ever between the schools in women's soccer competition. In fact, VWC has never faced any of the schools in the opening bracket.

The Marlins will be competing in their seventh straight NCAA tournament and eighth in the last nine years, all under the direction of head coach Jeff Bowers.  The trip to Hoboken ends a streak of three consecutive years of NCAA tourney play in Baltimore, Md., where the Marlins produced an 0-2-1 record.  VWC is 9-7 overall in tournament play however, and advanced to the Elite 8 in 2003 and the Final Four in 2006.

Williams will be making its fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament, and their 13th overall.  

Here's a look at the teams Hoboken bracket:

Stevens Institute of Technology: Host team; enrollment of 5,934; competes athletically in the Empire 8 Conference; the Ducks won the conference championship for the second year in a row, with a 2-0 win over Nazareth College; SIT is coached by Jeff Parker, who is in his 12th season at the school; Kathleen Schuckers (Lincoln Park, N.J./Morris Catholic) leads the Ducks in scoring with eight goals and 11 assists, Anne Heine (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake) has scored eight goals and Bridgette Barden (Redondo Beach, Calif./Notre Dame Academy) has netted six; 13 Ducks have scored a goal or an assist this season; goalie Katilin McClymont (Corpus Christi, Texas/Flour Bluff) owns a 0.69 GAA and an .898 saves percentage, helping the team to record nine shutouts; the Ducks have out-goaled teams 38-13 this season.

Westfield State: enrollment of 5,500; competes athletically in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference; the Owls won the MASCAC title with a 1-0 win over Worcester State University; WSU has won three MASCAC titles in the last four years; Todd Ditmar is in his seventh season as WSU's head coach; the Owls have posted eight shutouts, led by goalie Jess Habif (Holliston, Mass./Holliston), who owns a 0.79 GAA and an .870 saves percentage; Kayley Miller (Ludlow, Mass./Ludlow) has scored 15 goals and nine assists, Leann Rivard (Chicopee, Mass./Comprehensive) has added eight goals and 15 assists, and Brittanie McGregor (Ludlow, Mass./Ludlow) has recorded 12 goals and five assists to spark the Owls' offense, which has out-goaled foes 56-18; 19 Owls have recorded a goal or an assist this season

Williams: enrollment of 2,124; competes athletically in the New England Small College Athletic Association; had a streak of five straight NESCAC women's soccer titles snapped this year in a 2-1 loss to Amherst College in the title game; led by head coach Michelyne Pinard, who is in her 10th season at Williams; she led the Ephs to the Elite 8 in 2010; the Ephs are led by Brett Eisenhart (Seattle, Wash./Lakeside), who has scored 10 goals; Caitlyn Clark (Middleton, Mass.) leads the team with seven assists; 13 Ephs have recorded a goal or an assist this season; Hannah Van Wetter (Lakewood, Colo./Wheat Ridge) and Laura Wann (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes) share time in goal; Van Wetter owns a 0.54 GAA and an .895 saves percentage, while Wann has recorded a 0.58 GAA and an .864 saves percentage; the Ephs have shutout 10 foes and out-goaled foes 23-10

Virginia Wesleyan: enrollment of 1,420; competes athletically in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference; guided by head coach Jeff Bowers, who has led the Marlins to a 183-48-27 overall record in 12 years and a 108-14-10 record in ODAC play; VWC is led by Jessica Edelman (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Regional), who has scored 12 goals and 14 assists, Bre Ingargiola (Bayport, N.Y./Bayport-Blue Point), who has recorded 11 goals and seven assists, and Christina Fernandes (Tinton Falls, N.J./Tinton Falls), who has tallied nine goals and eight assists; 17 Marlins have recorded a goal or an assist so far this season;Erica Keil (Wayne, N.J./DePaul Catholic) protects the goal where she owns a 0.47 GAA and an .879 saves percentage; VWC has out-goaled foes 69-9 and recorded 14 shutouts this season.

--AMDG--