West Chester Women's Soccer Prepares for NCAA Tournament

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WEST CHESTER, Pa.- For the 17th consecutive year the West Chester women's soccer team (12-5-2, 10-4-2 PSAC) has received an NCAA bid for postseason play. On Monday evening the DII women's soccer NCAA Tournament bids were announced and the Golden Rams learned their streak would continue. West Chester has not missed an NCAA Tournament since 2003. The Golden Rams earned the No. 6 seed where they will be traveling to Slippery Rock to take on the Mountain Lions of Concord University.
 
West Chester enters the Tournament after going (1-1-0) in the PSAC Tournament. The Golden Rams had a double overtime win against the No. 1 seeded Huskies of Bloomsburg. With 45 seconds left on the clock, Sophomore Katie Crouthamel (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) scored her third game-winning goal of the season and pushed the Golden Rams into the semifinals. West Chester was matched up against Edinboro for the PSAC semifinals, the first time all season the Golden Rams have seen the Fighting Scots. Edinboro was able to score in the first five minutes of the game, leaving West Chester scoreless for the remaining time in regulation.
 
The other Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference teams that are in the represented in the Atlantic Region are No. 4 Millersville, No. 5 East Stroudsburg, No. 1 Bloomsburg, and No. 2 Slippery Rock. If West Chester comes out victorious over Concord on Thursday, they will take on Slippery Rock at home on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Rams are looking to improve their NCAA Tournament run history by making it as far as the Quarterfinals in 2017.
 
West Chester has been strong offensively this season with leading the conference in shots taken with a total of 387. The Golden Rams have the PSAC East Player of the Year, Jenny Bail (Carlisle, Pa/Cumberland Valley) on their offensive line. Bail has added on six goals for the Golden Rams and tallied 14 points on the season. Half of Bail's goals have been game-winning and helped to assist the Golden Rams to win PSAC games. Junior Hannah Zach (Doylestown, Pa./Bucks County East) has been a crucial player for the Golden Rams with 11 goals for the season and sixth in the conference for most goals in 2019. Along with Zach, four other Golden Rams were named All-Conference on the season, those including: Jenny Bail, Madison Baxter (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East), and Jesse Magee (Bucks County, Pa./Council Rock South).
 
The Golden Ram's defense held their opponents to 17 goals on the season. Senior goalkeeper Brooke Myers (Hershey, Pa./Middletown) had 37 saves out of 91 shots faced on the season and a record of 9-4-2. Recently West Chester has been having Freshman Hayley McGee (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland) in goal, with a 3-1-0 record in her games played. Jesse Magee has been central to the West Chester defense after moving to the backline halfway through the season.
 
West Chester throughout the season truly split its games half and half between home and on the road. The Goldens Rams went 6-1-2 at home and 6-3-0 on the road for the season. They have also tallied five shutouts in the 2019 season.
 
The Golden Rams will face off against the Mountain Lions on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Concord is a part of the Mountain East Conference and have gone 19-1 on their season thus far. The Mountain Lions are currently on a 14-game win streak. Concord's offense is led by Leah Foster and Rachel Bell who have a combined 33 goals on the season. The Mountain Lion's defense allowed their opponents to score only seven goals against them.
 
West Chester has not come across Concord University in any of their postseason runs in school history. The Golden Rams faced off against West Virginia Wesleyan College in last year's NCAA Tournament but lost to the Bobcats in penalty kicks. Coach Betty Ann Kempf Townesly has not missed an NCAA Tournament since she started at her career at West Chester.
 
The winner of Thursday's contest will proceed to the next round and face off against Slippery Rock on their turf.