Bulldogs earn 5th-seed at NJCAAs
PERKINSTON — The Mississippi Gulf Coast women's soccer team is headed to the program's first national tournament after sweating out Tuesday selection show until almost the very end.
The Bulldogs were the next-to-last team announced, earning the fifth seed for the tournament, which will be played in Wichita, Kan.
"I'm super excited for the girls," Gulf Coast coach Ryan Joiner said. "It's been a long season, a long three years, trying to develop a program and build it back to where it was, but I'm super happy for them. We're probably a little bit shell-shocked after the last couple days. Seeing what happened today is just a culmination of hard work and just delighted for our team."
Gulf Coast (12-3-1) will play in Pool D in the 12-team field, with its first game Monday against ninth-seeded Rocky Valley. Kickoff for all three games in the pool's round-robin is at 5:45 p.m. No. 4 Holmes plays the Golden Eagles on Sunday, and there will be a battle of MACCC Bulldogs in the final game Tuesday.
The top team from each group advances to the semifinals, which will be played Thursday. The championship is Saturday. The tournament is being played at Scheels Stryker Sports Complex.
"Traveling 12 hours to play a team that's two-and-a-half hours away that we know really well is gonna be difficult," Joiner said. "We don't know a lot about Rock Valley as of yet, but we'll find out more about them tonight. I'm excited to go show that we're the fifth-best team in the committee's eyes and see what happens from there."
Tickets for the games are available at https://www.visitwichita.com/get-tickets/. A tournament pass costs $60, and individual day passes are $20. Student day passes cost $15, and children 5 and under are free.
All games will be streamed at https://www.njcaa.org/network. A tournament pass costs $20, with day passes available for $12. Tournament updates can be found at https://njcaachampionship.prestosports.com/sports/wsoc/div2/index.
Gulf Coast will travel up on Friday to get a Saturday practice in before the pre-championship banquet that evening. The Bulldogs have been on the practice field since their district tournament run ended, hoping their season would continue in Kansas.
"It's shows that the hard work that we did didn't go unnoticed," Bulldogs co-captain Ava Green said. "We've worked really hard every single day to build up our team. And it was really, really nice seeing that everything we worked on come to life. I couldn't be more proud of the girls because I know every single one of us has worked our butt off to get there. I'm just really proud of us as a team, and I know we're gonna do great in nationals."
The Bulldogs, one of a record four MACCC teams in the field, took a great list of results into the at-large selection process, which filled out the field with four teams. They have a 1-0 win over eighth-seed Jones and a 2-2 tie at second-seed Northwest. The only blemishes on their record will be one-goal losses to current top-seed Johnson County, fourth-seed Holmes and second-seed Northwest.
"I think we all want to win," co-captain Bri Gasaway said. "The amount of hard work and effort that we put in throughout the season, I think we deserve to win."
NJCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship
November 16-22, 2025
Scheels Stryker Sports Complex
Wichita, Kan.
Pool D
Sunday, Nov. 16
No. 4 Holmes vs. No. 9 Rock Valley, 5:45 pm, Field 3
Monday, Nov. 17
No. 5 Gulf Coast vs. No. 9 Rock Valley, 5:45 p.m., Field 3
Tuesday, Nov. 18
No. 4 Holmes vs. No. 5 Gulf Coast, 5:45 p.m., Stadium
Semifinals
Thursday, Nov. 20
Semifinal 1, 10 a.m., Stadium
Semifinal 2, 12:30 p.m. Stadium
Championship
Saturday, Nov. 22
Title game, 1 p.m., Stadium
For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
