Blue Jays soccer team wins fifth straight SLIAC tournament title

The Westminster College Blue Jays soccer team continues to make the NCAA Division III national tournament an annual destination.

No. 4 seed Westminster collected its fifth straight St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament title by edging No. 3 Principia College 2-1 on Friday night in Elash, Illinois.

The Blue Jays (8-9-2) earned the SLIAC's automatic bid to the Division III tournament. Westminster will learn the identity of its first-round opponent and the site where it will be playing during the selection show airing at 12:30 p.m. Monday on ncaa.com.

The tournament's first round is scheduled for Nov. 10-11.

"I am super proud of our guys," Blue Jays head coach Adam Galla said. "We've had a ton of injuries this year and we've battled through."

Senior midfielder Mauricio Mateo put Westminster on the scoreboard first Friday night with an unassisted goal in the 7th minute. Junior midfielder Brent Lampen then made it 2-0 with an unassisted goal in the 65th minute.

Principia (6-9-3) came up with its only score on Kaleb Keller's unassisted goal in the 80th minute.

The Blue Jays were outshot 15-11 overall, but had an 8-5 edge in shots on goal. The Panthers possessed a 9-4 advantage in corner kicks.

Sophomore goalkeeper Connor Bandre recorded four saves for Westminster. Bandre was named the tournament's most valuable player after making 10 saves in two games and giving up just one goal in 180 minutes of play.

Junior defender Patrick Bromstedt, senior back Austin Chandler and freshman defender Josh Udinyiwe were named to the all-tournament team for the Blue Jays.

"We really had to get points towards the end of the season, and since we've been here before, we knew what to do," Galla said. "We needed to limit mistakes and capitalize on opportunities, and they fought and believed."