GORHAM, Maine – For the third consecutive year, and third time in program history, the University of Southern Maine Huskies women's soccer team is headed to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament. The Huskies (15-2-3) claimed the Little East Conference's automatic bid to the tournament after winning the LEC's tournament championship with a 3-0 shutout win over Western Connecticut State University Wolves. Southern Maine, the 2024 LEC Regular Season Champion, was the top-seed in the tournament and received a quarterfinal round bye. Southern Maine defeated VTSU-Castleton 2-0 in the semifinal, and WestConn 3-0 in the championship.
Southern Maine will face No. 18 Johns Hopkins University (15-2-3, 9-1 Centennial Conference) in the first round at host site The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ at Lions Stadium on Saturday, November 16 (1;30 pm). Johns Hopkins earned an automatic bid to the tournament for the third consecutive year as the Blue Jays won the Centennial Conference Tournament title with a 2-0 win over Franklin & Marshall. The 2024 NCAA appearance is the 22nd for the Blue Jays, including their 19
th consecutive dating back to 2005. This will be the first all-time meeting between the Blue Jays and the Huskies. The Blue Jays have scored 53 goals this season and are led by senior Katie Sullivan's 14 goals and seven assists.
Joining the four-team pod with the Huskies and Johns Hopkins are host The College of New Jersey (17-0-2) and Bridgewater State College (12-4-3). Sixty-four teams will vie for the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championship Title. TCNJ earned the New Jersey Athletic Conference's (NJAC) automatic bid after topping Montclair State, 4-1, in the NJAC title game. Bridgewater State earned its entry claiming the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) crown with a 3-2 win over Westfield State.
Forty-three slots are dedicated to automatic qualifiers and the remaining 20 bids are given to at-large teams.
Completing the 2024 Little East Conference regular season undefeated at 7-0-1, the Huskies shut out their opponents 10 times this season. Allowing just 17 goals all season, Southern Maine limited its opponents to a 0.85 goals against average, and outscored its opponents 73-17 on the season. In Little East Conference action, the Huskies' outscored their opponents 31-5, and limited its opposition to just 6.25 shots per game.
Defensively, the Huskies are led by reigning Little East Conference Defensive Player of the Year
Mia Sargent (Portland, Maine). Senior
Kiki Huntress (Kittery Point, Maine/Traip Academy) has been outstanding as the Huskies' defensive center-mid and a two time All-LEC pick in 2023.
Offensively, the Huskies are led by senior
Catriona Gould (Freeport, Maine). The program's all-time leaders in goals (58), assists (29) and points (145), Gould has 15 goals and 12 assists this season, including the game-winning goal in USM's 3-0 championship game victory. Assisting on the Huskies' third goal of the LEC Championship, Gould established the program's single season record (12).
Senior
Julia McKenna (Windham, Maine), a three-time All-Little East Conference selection, is second on the team in scoring with 10 goals and three assists, and junior
Riley Reitchel (Palermo, Maine/Erskine Academy) has nine goals and three assists. Sixteen different players have scored for the Huskies this season.
Senior goalkeeper
Hunter Stonebraker (Mont Vernon, N.H.) has backstopped the Huskies' defense. With seven shutouts to her credit this season, the 5-10 goalkeeper has a 0.46 goals against average.
2024 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Tournament
Huskies vs. Johns Hopkins at TCNJ (Ewing, NJ) | Saturday, November 16 | 1:30 PM
Who: No. 18 Johns Hopkins University (15-2-3, 9-1 Centennial Conference) - Conference Champion
When: Saturday, November 16 (1:30 PM)
Where: The College of New Jersey; Lions Stadium – Ewing, New Jersey.
Southern Maine Team Info:
Record: 15-2-3 (7-0-1 Little East) 2024 Little East Regular Season Champion, 2024 Little East Tournament Champion
Head Coach:
Martyn Keen, First Season
NCAA Tournament Appearances: Third (Last 2022, 2023)
All-Time Record in NCAA Tournament Play: 1-2
Huskies to Watch: Catriona Gould, Sr., F, (14 g, 4 a, 32 pts);
Riley Reitchel, So., F, (9g, 11 a, 29 pts);
Julia McKenna, Jr., M, (8 g, 7a, 23 pts);
Eliza Roy, Sr., F, (8g, 5a, 21 pts);
Kiki Huntress, Jr., CDM, (1 g, 0 a, 2 pts);
Mia Sargent, Sr., B, (1 g, 2 a, 4 pts); Bre Atwood, Sr., GK, (15-1-4, 0.65 GAA, .874 Save Percentage).
2024 NCAA Division III NCAA Women's Soccer National Championship Tournament
The 43 conferences and teams receiving automatic qualification are:
CONFERENCE TEAM
| Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference |
Penn State-Behrend |
| American Rivers Conference |
Loras |
| American Southwest Conference |
Hardin-Simmons |
| Atlantic East Conference |
Marymount (Virginia) |
| Centennial Conference |
Johns Hopkins |
| City University of New York Athletic Conference |
John Jay |
| Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference |
UC Santa Cruz |
| College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin |
North Central (Illinois) |
| Collegiate Conference of the South |
Maryville (Tennessee) |
| Conference of New England |
Gordon |
| Empire 8 |
SUNY Geneseo |
| Great Northeast Athletic Conference |
Emmanuel (Mass.) |
| Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference |
Mount St. Joseph |
| Landmark Conference |
Scranton |
| Liberty League |
Ithaca |
| Little East Conference |
Southern Maine |
| Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference |
Bridgewater State |
| Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association |
Calvin |
| Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth |
Messiah |
| Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom |
Misericordia |
| Midwest Conference |
Lawrence |
| Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
St. Catherine |
| New England Small College Athletic Conference |
Amherst |
| New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference |
MIT |
| New Jersey Athletic Conference |
TCNJ |
| North Atlantic Conference |
Husson |
| North Coast Athletic Conference |
DePauw |
| Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference |
Illinois Institute of Technology |
| Northwest Conference |
Pacific Lutheran |
| Ohio Athletic Conference |
Ohio Northern |
| Old Dominion Athletic Conference |
Washington and Lee |
| Presidents' Athletic Conference |
Grove City |
| Skyline Conference |
Farmingdale State |
| Southern Athletic Association |
Sewanee |
| Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps |
| Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference |
Trinity (Texas) |
| St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
Greenville |
| State University of New York Athletic Conference |
SUNY New Paltz |
| United East Conference |
Penn State-Harrisburg |
| University Athletic Association |
Washington University in St. Louis |
| Upper Midwest Athletic Conference |
Wisconsin-Superior |
| USA South Athletic Conference |
Methodist |
| Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
Wisconsin-La Crosse |
The 21 Pool C berths are:
Cal Lutheran
Carleton
Carnegie Mellon
CWRU
Christopher Newport
Colby
Emory
McDaniel
NYU
Pomona-Pitzer
Rowan
Simpson
Skidmore
St. Mary's (Maryland)
SUNY Brockport
Tufts
University of Chicago
Rochester
Vassar
Wesleyan (Connecticut)
William Smith
2024 Tournament Format and Dates
First/second rounds: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 15-16-17 at campus sites*
Sectional rounds: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 22-24 at campus sites*
Semifinals: Thursday, Dec. 6 at Peter Johann Memorial Field in Las Vegas, Nevada.
National championship: Saturday, Dec. 8 at Peter Johann Memorial Field in Las Vegas, Nevada.
* Host institutions with a Sunday no-play policy will compete on Friday & Saturday
* - in the case of a participating school having a Sunday No-Play policy
- cac –
