Graceland Wins Tournament Crown, 2-0

Graceland (17-2-1) won the conference tournament for the second time in four seasons and claims the league's automatic berth into the 29th Annual Women's Soccer National Championship. The Opening Round matches will be played next Saturday, November 17 with the 16 winners advancing to the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Ala.

With Castano locking down the defense throughout the evening, all of the offense the Yellowjackets would need came 2:07 into the game. Yuli Munoz knocked a header into the path of Sydney Nolan, who fired her fifth goal of the season to send the home crowd into a frenzy.

Graceland would feed off of the energy of the home crowd and continue to pressure the Benedictine goal. The build-up resulted in a second goal at the 33:13 mark as Gisela Arrieta fired a shot into the area that slipped past Benedictine GK Ashley Holland.

"We all believe in each other so much; we believe in ourselves and the team," said Castano, who lowered her goals against average to 1.15 with her third clean sheet of the season. "When we step on the field, we want to leave everything out there. I can't take credit for this performance when there is such an amazing back line to protect the goal."

The Ravens (15-2-3) came to life after the second goal and began an onslaught on the Yellowjackets' net that resulted in a final shot tally of 28-10 for the visitors. However, the Ravens were unable to find the back of the net for the second time in the past three games with a combined total of 66 shots after entering the game with a league-best 84 goals scored during the season.

"It's good to get into the NAIA postseason on our own terms instead of backing into it," said head coach Fred Wagenaar, who claimed his second tournament championship in his tenure at Graceland. "Exhilarating win for us. We came out and played our best ball of the year. This was an incredible effort by the whole team. I do not have words to describe how proud I am. We defeated a fantastic Benedictine team."

Pairings for the Opening Round of the national tournament will be released on Monday, November 12 with 32 teams being paired to play matches on campus sites around the nation. The first game at the final site is scheduled for Monday, November 26 at 11:00 a.m. The championship match will be played on Saturday, December 1 at 5:00 p.m.