NAIA NATIONAL TOURNAMENT | 1st & 2nd Rounds | Winona Lake, Ind.
4 p.m. Thursday – Southern Oregon (14-2-2) vs. Morningside (Iowa) (11-1-5)
11 a.m. Saturday – R1 Winner at (7) Grace (Ind.) (15-2-4)
All times Pacific | Live Streams | R1 Live Stats | R2 Live Stats | Bracket

PLAYOFF PICTURE: The 2025 Southern Oregon women's soccer team is already stamped as one of the best in program history, but the Raiders can separate themselves from the pack with a big week in Winona Lake, Indiana. That's where they'll make their second all-time NAIA National Tournament appearance after earning an at-large bid to be part of the 40-team bracket. They're set for a first-round game against Morningside (Iowa) at 4 p.m. Thursday, and the winner of that one will move on to play site host and No. 7 overall seed Grace (Ind.) in the second round at 11 a.m. Saturday on 1st Source Bank Field.

The top 24 teams in the bracket received first-round byes. Following Saturday's action, the last 16 left standing will travel to Pensacola, Fla., to play the final four rounds Dec. 1-8 at Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex. The Raiders made their only previous tournament appearance in 2019, when the field was 46 teams deep, and got a first-round win against Campbellsville (Ky.) before losing to top-ranked William Carey (Miss.) in the second.

ABOUT MORNINGSIDE: The Mustangs stand at 11-1-5 overall and went 8-1-2 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference to win the regular-season title and clinch an automatic bid to make their first tournament appearance since 2015. It's the fourth time they've qualified in team history, and they're seeking their first-ever NAIA playoff advancement. They're unbeaten in 11 consecutive games on the backs of four All-GPAC first-team selections: forward Keyera Harmon (11 goals, 6 assists), midfielders Tuva Hammarlund (10 goals, 3 assists) and Melissa Tsatiris (7 goals, 4 assists), and defender Lily Sidel (1 assist). Six different countries are represented in a starting lineup that has helped them outscore opponents 46-13 combined. A GPAC that was not highly regarded nationally dragged their final NAIA RPI ranking down to No. 63, and they took their only loss against Hastings (Neb.), the one team within the conference that received votes in the final NAIA coaches' poll.

IF THEY ADVANCE: The tournament's No. 7 overall seed, Grace (Ind.), awaits the first-round winner with a 15-2-4 record, fresh off a Crossroads League Tournament championship. It was in that tourney that the Lancers won in the semifinals against the NAIA's No. 3 overall seed, Indiana Wesleyan, and prevailed in penalty kicks in the title game against the NAIA's No. 1 overall seed, Marian (Ind.). The Lancers are battle tested, having played nine games against Top 25 squads and gotten results in seven of them. They're in the tournament for the first time since making their fifth consecutive appearance in 2022 and have twice advanced to the Round of 16. Crossroads Offensive Player of the Year Nora Pollock (12 goals, 18 assists), a star freshman, tops the national assists leaderboard, and they also feature the Crossroads Midfielder of the Year in junior Cassidy Felger (17 goals, 9 assists). Since dropping back-to-back games to Indiana Wesleyan and Marian in October, they've outscored opponents 16-2 combined over their last eight. They finished third in the Crossroads regular season at 6-2-1.

BRIEFLY:

• The Raiders were No. 21 in the final NAIA RPI ranking and No. 32 in the final NAIA coaches' poll after establishing a new program record for wins. Only the top 16 teams in the tournament are officially seeded, but the Raiders' spot in the first round implies they were placed outside of the top 24.
• In last year's tournament, 13 of 16 seeded teams advanced to the final site. In 2023, only nine advanced.
• Junior forward Abby McKean has scored the game-winning goals in each of SOU's last four victories. By tallying two goals in the CCC Tournament quarterfinals, she moved up to No. 2 on SOU's all-time single-season goals list with 14.
• Frida Vargas is up to No. 3 on SOU's career assists list with 15. She owns nine goals and eight assists this season and is the third player in team history to record at least eight of each in a season.
• One major key to SOU's success has been consistency on the back line, where Miller Bertani, Carter O'Shea and Payton Puppe-Wotipka have started every game and Kaylah Bresee has started all but one. Bertani, the CCC Defensive Player of the Year, is expected to make her 67th career start on Thursday. Bresee joined her on the All-CCC list, and Brittany Standley was voted the conference's co-goalkeeper of the year with a 0.64 goals-allowed average and an 85% save rate. Another key to the goal-prevention efforts, All-CCC honorable mention recipient Sierra Betzler, has started 16 games at holding-midfielder.
• Brooklyn Hayes led the Raiders in points with 10 goals and four assists when she sustained an injury Oct. 25. The junior forward has missed SOU's last four games.
• Two other CCC teams are in the field: College of Idaho is hosting as the No. 4 overall seed, and Eastern Oregon has a first-round game against Oakland City (Ind.) with a chance to play No. 3 seed Indiana Wesleyan on the line.