INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Six is the magic number of teams that will qualify for the NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Championship West Regional Rounds, and No. 6 is the spot UH-Hilo occupies in the second NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Regional Rankings released Wednesday morning.
The Vulcans (10-2-1 overall) were announced in last week’s teaser of the first top eight teams listed in alphabetical order as Point Loma was unveiled as the No. 1 out of the West Region.
UH-Hilo recently ended its 35-game regular season win streak with defeats to PLNU and Concordia University Irvine, the latter of which came in one spot ahead at No. 5 in the NCAA West Region Rankings.
The Vulcans still have a path to claiming their third consecutive Pacific West Conference trophy but will need some help to accomplish the task.
The champions from each of the PacWest Conference, California Collegiate Athletic Association and Great Northwest Athletic Conference will automatically earn one of the six postseason bids up for grabs, leaving three at-large spots to be determined by the final NCAA Regional Rankings.
One more iteration will be released next Wednesday before the unveiling of teams at the NCAA Selection Show set for Monday, Nov. 13.
UH-Hilo wraps up the regular season with its final home match this Saturday against Azusa Pacific before finishing on O’ahu against Chaminade on Nov. 12.
The Vulcans received a No. 13 ranking in the latest United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll released Tuesday morning.
Although the Vulcans had a match Monday afternoon, this week’s rankings were unaffected by those results — a defeat by No. 8 Concordia University Irvine — as weekly ballots are collected before the end of the weekend.
UH-Hilo moved down three slots from the previous week’s rank of No. 10.
PacWest Standings
1. Concordia 6-0-1
2. UH-Hilo 6-2
3. Point Loma 5-2
4. Westmont 4-1-2
5. Azusa Pacific 4-1-2
6. Chaminade 4-2-2
7. Biola 3-4-1
8. HPU 1-4-3
9. Dominican 1-5-2
10. Fresno Pacific 1-6-1
11. ART U 0-8