For the sixth time in program history, the UTRGV Women’s Soccer Team qualified for the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, which will take place this week at Championship Field in Seattle.
“It’s always our goal to make the WAC Tournament,” Head Coach Glad Bugariu said. “Obviously, that’s what you need to do to be able to compete for the big prize. We think we’re a team that can surprise people this year. We’ve played pretty well most of the time. I mean, we haven’t scored as many goals as in years past, but we think we come in as the dark horse.”
The first match of the quarterfinal round is slated for 6 p.m. Wednesday with the fourth seed facing off against the fifth seed. The game will be followed by match two at 9 p.m., in which the third seed will play against the sixth seed.
Semifinal rounds will take place with games three and four Friday. The winner of match one will face off against the No. 1 seed in match three at 6 p.m. At 9 p.m., the winner of match two will battle the No. 2 seed.
The championship game will take place at 3 p.m. and the winner will represent the WAC at the NCAA Tournament Nov. 15-17.
Last year at the WAC Tournament, UTRGV obtained its first-ever tournament game win against California State University at Bakersfield 4-3 in penalties during the first round of the tournament. The team then moved on to the semifinal round where it fell 2-0 to Seattle University.
This year, the team will rely on the unity that it has to move on in the WAC Tournament.
“This is probably the best group I’ve ever worked with in 16, 17 years of college coaching,” Bugariu said. “They’re united, they’re professional, they’re hard working, they have great team chemistry. It’s been a real pleasure to work with them and I think that’s really our strength.”
As of last Thursday, UTRGV was fifth in WAC standings. The team played its last regular season game last Saturday against New Mexico State University. Results and new standings were unavailable as of press time.
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