NAIA Release
The #12 Aquinas women's soccer team will be heading to Marion, Indiana as the #2 seed in the Marion bracket for the NAIA National Tournament, as announced by officials on Monday afternoon (Nov. 15). This is the fourth straight NAIA National Tournament appearance for the Saints and have a 2-3 record through the previous three appearances. AQ is tied with Central Methodist (Mo.) with the most wins this season at 19 in the championship field.
To reach the tournament, AQ received an automatic qualifying bid after winning the WHAC regular season with a 10-0-1 conference record and then doubled down and won the WHAC Tournament Championship after defeating Indiana Tech 3-1 in the quarterfinals, Siena Heights 4-1 in the semifinals, and UNOH 1-0 in overtime for the championship.
The Saints will face the #3 seeded Hope International Royals on Thursday (Nov. 18), with kick-off scheduled for 4:00 PM. The Royals, who were receiving votes in the last NAIA Coaches' Top-25 poll, have a 12-0-3 record on the season and clinched a share of the GSAC regular season title after going 6-0-2 in conference play. Most recently, HIU made it to the GSAC Tournament Championship game and tied #16 Westmont College 2-2 through two overtimes before losing the shootout 5-4. Hope International boasts the GSAC Player of the Year in forward Ofelia Sosa Cruz and are in the NAIA National Tournament for the second time in program history.
Hosting the Marion bracket is the #7 Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats, who will be the #1 seed in the bracket, and they will be playing the #4 seeded St. Ambrose Fighting Bees at 6:30 PM on Thursday. The winners of AQ/HIU and IWU/SAU will advance to the Marion bracket championship game on Saturday (Nov. 20), with kick-off scheduled for 5:00 PM. The winner of the bracket will be one of ten teams that will head to Orange Beach, Alabama for the final site of the tournament on Nov. 30-Dec.6.
Aquinas was joined by UNOH as the other representative for the WHAC in the NAIA National Tournament after getting in by an automatic qualifying bid from being runner-up in the WHAC Tournament.
