Salt Lake, Snow colleges representing women’s soccer in Utah with 2 JUCO semifinalists
SALT LAKE CITY – Of the thousands of women’s soccer programs scattered across junior colleges in America, only four remain before Monday’s semifinals at the National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament in Evans, Georgia.
Two of them are based in Beehive State.
Salt Lake Community College and Snow College are two of the last four teams remaining in the national semifinals of the tournament, which begins Monday at 3:00 p.m. EST. Then the No. 4 Badgers face high-ranking Tyler in the first semifinals, followed by the No. 2 Bruins who play the No. 3 Eastern Florida State against the home team at 5:30 pm MT.
All games are streamed live at njcaa.org/network.
And that the two belong to the last group nationwide, it comes as no surprise to either side. Of the four combined losses between the Bruins and Badgers, three of them go to each other.
It’s enough to make SLCC head coach Mark Davis forget how tired he was after booking a Red Eye flight between the NJCAA men’s soccer tournament in Wichita, Kansas and the women’s tournament in South Georgia.
“It was a great relief to return to Georgia,” Davis told KSL.com shortly after flying from Kansas to Atlanta late Sunday night before driving for two hours to his hotel just outside the Augusta National Golf Club. “It was something we wanted so badly and I’m rejuvenated. I flew in late at night and I’m not even that tired.
“The men’s team also supported me so much that I am here, and I was very surprised – and very happy – about it. The girls fought so hard to get to the semi-finals and they knew I had to be there. “
Grown into a power in the western United States in just a few years, the Bruins (14-1) are led by four double-digit goalscorers: Anna Pinegar (14), Ashlyn Hall (14), Cassidy Adams (14) and Kallyn Chynoweth (11), as well as the country’s leading player in Quincy Richards (18 assists).
Salt Lake’s Kaytlyn Larsen celebrates a goal as SLCC Women’s Football celebrates the West Division Championship with a 4-0 win over Cochise College to advance to the NJCAA Women’s National Football Tournament. The No. 2 Bruins will face No. 2 in an NJCAA semi-finals on Monday in Evans, Georgia. 3 East Florida State. (Photo: Stephen Speckman, SLCC Athletics)
As the head coach of the SLCC’s men’s and women’s football programs, Davis served twice in different time zones, coaching the men’s Bruin team in a 1-0 loss to Coastal Bend before flying back to Georgia to join the women’s Bruin team in the. to coach semifinals (which will be played on Monday afternoon, shortly after the men’s team is at stake at noon against Barton College with a place in the NJCAA semifinals).
With luck – and most importantly, a win over the third seeded Titans from Melbourne, Florida – Davis may have to make late travel arrangements again, perhaps even to face a familiar opponent in the national championship. The Badgers are considered the underdogs of front-runner Tyler, but Snow is also the only team to beat Salt Lake, a 1-0 win at Ephraim that opened the game at Scenic West on April 8.
A relative newcomer to the scene, Snow trainer Charles Long is not surprised by the success of his own team or that of Badgers’ rival Scenic West in Salt Lake.
Most recently a veteran coach for JUCO from Cloud County, Concordia, Kansas, Long saw the soccer talent that Utah brings up close when he attended a local camp this fall. Even while he was trying to recruit or rebuild a squad – one that only returned two players from a year ago – he knew Beehive State would be an important building block.
“I’ve seen a lot of girls come to our camp and I realized why they are recruiting so many great players from Utah,” said Long. “There’s no shortage of quality players. It’s the same with Salt Lake, and that’s cool.
“But I knew it was going to be interesting. So our goal was just to get to the playoffs and then who knows? The girls definitely put the work in and it’s kind of exciting.”
The Badgers did a lot of it, with a young roster that includes players from near Ephraim and Manti to Salt Lake City and St. George, with a couple of Division I and international transfers.
WE ARE
Salt Lake picks up at 3 again with just a few minutes left to usually play! pic.twitter.com/qTm8YXxiyR
– NJCAA Network (@NJCAANetwork) June 5, 2021
It turns out that Utah soccer players are pretty good – good enough to send two teams into the bottom four of junior college.
“It’s incredible,” said Davis, whose men’s team has eleven Division I signatories on the current squad. “A lot of the same girls on our team and even with Snow are fantastic players. You have to show respect, up and down the Wasatch, from Logan to St. George. Football is a hotbed in Utah – especially in the US . ” the women side.
“It’s also great for Scenic West to have two teams in the semifinals. I got random Division I coaches to talk to me about two teams in the semis. It’s insane.”
New to the college football landscape, Snow College’s fifth year is hardly new to the national tournament. The Badgers won an automatic seat to the NJCAA tournament 13-3 in the 2019 regional and county championships, where they went 2-0 in the pool game, which included a 0-0 loss to Tyler.
Even with a largely new roster, Snow continued to build on this success. Led by top scorer Sydney Cragun, a Morgan High seven-a-year product, the Badgers built a 10-3-1 record that included an 8-7 penalty shootout against powerhouse Iowa Western in Saturday’s second group game.
Now it’s going to the semi-finals, where Snow draws the reigning champions and number 1 in the overall standings in Tyler. The unbeaten Apaches (16-0) have scored at least four goals in their last eight games, including wins 6-0 and 7-1 in the tournament game.
But the Badgers play without pressure – just a group of Utah players who made history and want to get a little more from a business trip to Peach State.
“Be glad we can come out and play,” Long told his players before boarding a plane out of Kansas, where the Snow College men’s team fell 2-1 to Harcum No. 4. “What a great opportunity to get out there and compete. Never lose sight of it. It’s not just about wins or losses, it’s about the opportunity to come out and play.”
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