BROCKTON, Mass. ---- The Massasoit women's soccer team earned the top seed for the NJCAA Region 21 Division III Women's Soccer Tournament, hosted by Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Mass., this weekend.
Massasoit finished the regular season at 9-4-1 and 9-1 in regional play and hopes to capture its third Region 21 title in program history and first since 1999.
The three-team regional tournament, gives top seed Massasoit a bye to the regional championship, slated for Sunday at 12 PM at HCC. The Warriors will face the winner of Saturday's semifinal matchup between No. 2 seed Holyoke (10-6-1, 9-1 R21) and No. 3 seed Bunker Hill (4-10, 4-6 R21).
The Warriors earned the top seed in the tournament through a tiebreaker against Holyoke, as the Cougars also finished 9-1 in league play. Both teams split the regular season series, with each team winning on its home field. Massasoit won the tiebreaker through common opponents outside the region, as Massasoit tied New Hampshire Technical Institute, while HCC lost to the Lynx during the regular season.
The Warriors have been an offensive juggernaut during the 2018 campaign, averaging 5.77 goals per game, ranking third in the nation. A trio of newcomers have been goal scoring machines in Samantha Baston (Carver), Anya-Welch Batstone (Avon) and Betty Blake (Whitman).
Baston tops the team in points (510, netting 19 goals and dishing out a team-high 13 assists for the season. The Carver native earned NJCAA Women's Soccer Division III Player of the Week back on Oct. 8 and has been a key player as a central midfielder.
Welch-Batstone tops the team and region in goals (21) and is right behind Baston in points with an even 50 on the season. Blake has netted 12 goals and adds seven assists to her stat line, seeing action .
Massasoit also features do-it-all sophomore Alex Santos. The Whitman native has played all over the field for the Warriors during her second season in Brockton. After primarily playing up top in 2017, Santos has shown versatility en route to scoring nine goals and dishing out nine assists.
Other scoring threats have been Amanda Sesock of Whitman with seven goals and nine assists and Dineida Gomes of Brockton with three goals and five assists.
The Warrior defense has been led by sweeper Morgan Acorn (Whitman) and sophomore backs Marlene Andrade (Brockton) and Sabine Bernard (Brockton). Karen Snow (Irving, NY) and Aisha Ballester (Randolph) have seen action on defense as well.
In net, Katie Amado (Whitman) has started 11 matches, posting five shutouts and making 52 saves on the season.
HCC has won six straight Region 21 titles and nine of 10, with the lone conference champion other than the Cougars during the past decade being Manchester CC.