Westmont Magazine A Winning Season for the Warriors

Four Warrior teams qualified for national competition in fall 2016: women’s volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s and women’s cross country. The five fall teams posted a combined record of 61-11-3 for a .833 winning percentage.

This success boosted Westmont to second in the Learfield Director’s Cup, which recognizes programs that perform well overall, assigning points for finishes in national championship play. Westmont leads the race for the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) All Sports Award.

The volleyball team, ranked No. 1 nationally, ended the regular season undefeated (31-0), a first for a Westmont team. Seeded No. 1 of 44 contenders at the NAIA National Tournament, the Warriors lost to Park University in the quarterfinal round, finishing with a record-setting 32-2.

The No. 10 women’s soccer team lost to No. 6 Northwestern Ohio in the second round of the NAIA National Tournament, finishing 16-4-2. They earned an at-large bid to the tournament.

No. 20 Westmont men’s soccer (11-5-1), regular season GSAC co-champions, failed to receive one of six at-large bids to the national tournament when they lost the GSAC Tournament Championship.

The cross country teams finished second (men) and third (women) at the GSAC Conference meet. Both teams advanced to the NAIA National Championships where the women finished 20th and the men 23rd.

Three athletes earned NAIA All-American honors: Libby Dahlberg and Taylor Beckman (volleyball) and Genaro Hurtado (men’s soccer). Patti Cook (volleyball) and Dave Wolf (men’s soccer) are GSAC Coaches of the Year, and Ruth McGolpin (volleyball) is GSAC Assistant Coach of the Year. GSAC Player of the Year awards went to Dahlberg, Hurtado and Brooke Lillywhite (women’s soccer).