After a long and arduous season for the 2023 Tufts University women’s soccer team, the Jumbos have gone on a historic run through the 2023 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Tournament and will play in the NCAA Semifinals Thursday, November 30 at 3 p.m. against Cal Lutheran University at Kerr Stadium in Salem, VA on the campus of Roanoke College.
Tufts earned their spot in the national semifinals after wins against No. 22 Bowdoin College and No. 6 University of Rochester back on November 18-19 in Rochester.
Andover resident Maddie Silveira, a former Phillips Academy star, is a member of the team’s defense. She has played in all 20 games, logging 649 minutes and is part of a defensive unit that has posted seven shut outs.
{span}Thursday will be the first meeting between these teams separated by 3,025 miles, as Tufts (11-5-4) and Cal Lutheran (18-1-5) are about as far apart for two Division III teams as you can get. In fact, Tufts has never played any team from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Cal Lutheran has played one New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) squad before, falling to Williams College in 2017. {/span}
{span}{span}Tufts came into the NCAA Tournament as one of the last team’s selected as a Pool C bid, and has made the most of it. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, Tufts was one of just three teams since 2000 to make the field with seven wins or fewer as an at-large selection, joining just Wesleyan University this year and Trinity College (CT) in 2022. {/span}{/span}
{span}The Jumbos 11 wins coming into a NCAA Final Four is the fewest in NCAA soccer history, as Tufts looks for its first women’s soccer national title. Tufts earned its way to the national semifinals after earning victories over Franklin & Marshall College 2-1 in the opening round before knocking off The College of New Jersey 3-0 in the second round. {/span}
{span}{span}The winner of the game will face the winner of the other semi-final between {/span}{/span}No. 5 ranked Messiah and No. 2 Washington University of St. Louis (WashU). The two teams square off at 6 p.m. Thursday night after the Tufts-Cal Lutheran game.
{span}The winners of the two semifinals will meet Saturday afternoon in the 2023 NCAA Division III Tournament title game at noon at Kerr Stadium in Salem.{/span}