By Ron Smith
April 12, 2021
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The NAIA has announced the qualifiers for the Women's Soccer National Championship, along with the brackets for the 10 Opening Round Tournaments, including the Santa Barbara Bracket.
 
Westmont (7-4) was named the number one seed in the Santa Barbara Bracket and will take on Oregon Tech (11-1) in a semifinal contest on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Westmont's game will follow the first semifinal between second-seeded Eastern Oregon (7-1-2) and third-seeded La Sierra (10-4).
 
The winners of the semifinal games will meet in the Opening Round championship game on Saturday at noon.
 
The Santa Barbara Bracket victor will join the winners of the other nine brackets in Foley, Alabama to play out the rest of the single-elimination tournament beginning on Tuesday, April 27 and concluding on Monday, May 3.
 
Oregon Tech was the winner of the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) West Division with a 9-1 conference record. The Hustlin' Owls' only loss of the season came against Corban (Ore.) by a score of 2-3. Oregon Tech avenged the loss the following day with a 1-0 victory.
 
The Owls' and Warriors did not face any common opponents this season. However, Oregon Tech did take on William Jessup of the Golden State Athletic Conference recording a 3-1 victory on February 13.
 
Oregon Tech has outscored its opponents 41-4 this season, averaging 3.4 goals per game.
 
Freshman forward Mehana Ortiz and sophomore midfielder Maddie Miller led the Owls' offensive attack this year. Mehana has tallied eight goals and 11 assists while Miller has posted a team-high 11 goals and one assist. Senior forward Abigail Herbert has notched seven goals and two assists.
 
Alyx Berkhartzmeyer and Sydni Nakamura have shared the goaltending duties. In 656 minutes of work, Berkhartzmeyer has not allowed a single goal. The Owls have recorded seven straight shutouts coming into national tournament play.
 
La Sierra won the California Pacific Conference South Division and then reached the NAIA Championship with a 1-0 victory over UC Merced (7-1) in the California Pacific Conference championship game. It was the Golden Bobcats first loss of the season and knocked them out of further postseason play.
 
Eastern Oregon finished CCC East Division regular season play in second place behind the College of Idaho (8-3-2), then received an at-large berth into the National Championship.
 
La Sierra and Eastern Oregon did not face any common opponents this season.
 
The Golden Eagles have outscored their opponents 41-16, led by sophomore forward Citlalli Pedraza (six goals), senior midfielder Mariah Anaya (five goals, three assists) and freshman forward Arianna Perez (five goals, four assists).
 
The Eastern Oregon Mountaineers have a 19-3 scoring advantage over their opponents. Morgan Farrington and Mackinley Gregus have provided the fire power tallying five and four goals respectively. Gregus has also posted three assists.
 
Westmont and Eastern Oregon matched up in the 2017 NAIA Opening Round with Westmont posting a 1-0 victory to advance to the final site. Westmont and La Sierra have never met.
 
Limited tickets are available for the tournament. For information on obtaining tickets, please visit https://athletics.westmont.edu/WSOC2020-21OR