Don’t let St. Mary’s (Calif.) record fool you because the Gaels have travelled a long and difficult road to earn their spot NCAA quarterfinals.
After claiming the West Coast Conference title and subsequent automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in the final weekend of conference play, the Gaels upset three ranked opponents as the road team.
“A long bus ride to Bakersfield, a long bus ride to Irvine and a long bus ride home,” St. Mary’s coach Adam Cooper said. “Bakersfield’s a very good team and Irvine’s obviously very good and in a torrential down pour. At Brown was tough, and we fly home — so yeah its been a good road.”
That road has led them to Chapel Hill where they practiced Friday night at Fetzer Field in preparation for North Carolina on Saturday at 5 p.m. The winner punches their ticket to play in the College Cup which is being hosted by Alabama-Birmingham in Hoover, Ala.
Should the Tar Heels win, it would be UNC’s fourth consecutive appearance in college soccer’s final four. But if St. Mary’s wins tomorrow it would be the program’s first ever College Cup appearance. In fact, the Gaels have already made the deepest post-season run in school history.
“The further you go the more special it becomes,” Cooper said, “and we know that and we get it. We really hope our guys are enjoying it and they should. They should feel good and enjoy the ride and the whole process of it but at the same time we certainly want more.”
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