The No. 14 Stanford women’s soccer team (12-4-1, 5-4-1 ACC) has been selected as the No. 3 seed for the 43rd Division I NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The 64-team field was announced Monday during the NCAA Selection Show. Stanford will host UC Santa Barbara (8-5-9) in the first round at home on Friday. The winner will advance to face either No. 6 seed Rutgers or UConn in the next round.
Stanford has a rich tournament history, with 11 College Cup appearances and 26 NCAA tournament bids in the last 27 years. The team has won three national championships, in 2011, 2017, and 2019. Last year, they finished as the national runner-up.
The Cardinal boasts a perfect 21-0-0 record in first-round home tournament matches and is 56-4-5 in all-time postseason games at Stanford, having won 16 straight. They are 44-1-2 in their last 47 home postseason games since 2008.
Stanford aims to rebound from a 3-2 loss to Cal on Halloween, which ended with a last-minute penalty. The team’s four conference losses, including the defeat to Cal, kept them out of the ACC tournament.
UC Santa Barbara, which won the Big West Conference championship with an 8-7 penalty shootout win over Cal State Bakersfield, has not appeared in the NCAA tournament since 2009.
Stanford’s offense is led by senior Andrea Kitahata, freshman Charlotte Kohler, and sophomore Shae Harvey, who have scored 19, 9, and 8 total points, respectively. Senior goalkeeper Haley Craig, starting for the first time this season, has a 75.8% save rate.
For UCSB, Big West Freshman of the Year Devin Greer is the standout player, leading the team with 24 points, including 10 goals and four assists. Greer’s key goals in the Big West tournament helped secure the Gauchos’ NCAA bid.
Stanford will host UC Santa Barbara at Cagan Stadium on Friday at 6 p.m.
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