2023 WAC women's soccer tournament explained

Year:2023
Conference:WAC
Gender:women's
Teams:6
Matches:5
Attendance:1,295
Venue:CBU Soccer Field
City:Riverside, California
Champions:Grand Canyon
Titlecount:2nd
Coach:Chris Cissell
Coachcount:2nd
Broadcast:ESPN+
Mvp:Gianna Gourley
Mvpteam:Grand Canyon

The 2023 Western Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament was the postseason women's soccer tournament for the Western Athletic Conference held from October 29 to November 4, 2023. The five-match tournament took place at CBU Soccer Field in Riverside, California on the campus of California Baptist University. The six-team single-elimination tournament consisted of three rounds based on seeding from regular-season divisional conference play. The defending champions were the New Mexico State Aggies.[1] New Mexico State was unable to defend their title as they moved to Conference USA during the off-season.[2] Grand Canyon would go on to defeat Seattle in the Final, 4–2 to win the tournament.[3] [4] This was the second WAC Tournament victory in Grand Canyon program history, both of which have come under head coach Chris Cissell. This was the second tournament title in three years for Grand Canyon.[5] As tournament champions, Grand Canyon earned the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Seeding

The top six teams from regular season play qualified for the 2023 Tournament. Teams were seeded based on regular season conference records and the top two seeds earned a bye into the semifinal round. No tiebreakers were required as each of the top six teams finished with unique conference records.[6]

SeedSchoolConference RecordPoints
1Utah Valley7–0–223
2California Baptist6–0–321
3Seattle6–2–120
4Grand Canyon5–1–318
5Utah Tech3–2–413
6Southern Utah3–5–110

Bracket

Source:[7]

Matches

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

All-Tournament team

Source:[8]

Player Team
Lourdes BoschCalifornia Baptist
Gianna GourleyGrand Canyon
DeAira Jackson
Leah Pirro
Lindsey Prokop
Bekah Valdez
Kaylee CoatneySeattle
Kassidy Kirgan
Kacey La Boda
Kait Raffensperger
Ruby HladekUtah Valley
MVP in bold

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2022 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament. June 12, 2023. Western Athletic Conference.
  2. Conference USA Adds Four Members . Conference USA . November 5, 2021 . November 5, 2021.
  3. Web site: 2023 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament. January 11, 2024. wacsports.com. Western Athletic Conference.
  4. Web site: SU women's soccer falls in WAC championship. The Seattle Times. November 4, 2023. January 11, 2024.
  5. Web site: 2023 Women's Soccer Record Book. January 11, 2024. wacsports.com. Western Athletic Conference.
  6. Web site: 2023 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament Bracket Announced. wacsports.com. January 11, 2024. Western Athletic Conference.
  7. Web site: 2023 WAC Women's Soccer Bracket. January 11, 2024. Western Athletic Conference. wacsports.com.
  8. Web site: Grand Canyon Captures 2023 WAC Women's Soccer Championship Title. Western Athletic Conference. wacsports.com. January 11, 2024.