Jordyn Dupes and Maddy Evans Preview Championship Game
SEATTLE, WA – West Chester University's women's soccer squad has advanced to the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championship Game and will face Western Washington on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. EST at Interbay Stadium in Seattle.
West Chester (23-0-1) is looking to become the first unbeaten national champion since Central Missouri did it in 2017. In all, eight former Division II national champions since 1988 have gone through their season without suffering a loss. To turn the trick, West Chester will have to defeat Western Washington (18-2-4), which incidentally is one of the previous eight schools to go unbeaten and win the title. They did it back in 2016.
Fans back in Pennsylvania, who could not make it to Seattle for the championship game, can catch all the action at this
LINK.
This is West Chester's second trip to the national semifinals, but first to the national title game. A program that began in 1992 has grown and developed into one of the top Division II programs in the country. The Golden Rams tied a record with its 19th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament – which has culminated in Saturday's appearance in the championship game.
Head coach
Betty Ann Kempf Townsley is one of only 43 female head coaches at the Division II level out of 253 total programs. He has accumulated 382 wins in her 37 years of coaching, which included starting the women's soccer programs at both LaSalle and Seton Hall at the Division I level. At West Chester alone, Kempf Townsley has 238 wins and has qualified for the NCAAs in each of her 15 years at the school. Five starters in Kempf Townsley's lineup are either freshman or sophomore. Three of those five were all-league selections and one was a second team All-America pick.
Consistency out of the back has been West Chester's recipe for success. Three of the four starters on the back line, and the goalkeeper herself, have started all 24 games for the Golden Rams.
Kiley Kergides,
Deanna Lebotesis and
Jordyn Dupes have constructed a wall in front of keeper
Hayley McGee all fall. West Chester leads the country in both goals-against average and save percentage as a team.
