YUMA, Ariz. - For the third season in a row, the Arizona Western College women's soccer team is headed to the NJCAA national championship tournament. The Lady Matadors received an At-Large bid after ending the regular season polls #2 overall with an undefeated record before falling to Cochise College in the Region 1 Final. Despite the loss, the Lady Matadors did more than enough to earn the selection committee's trust with the #3 overall seed in the 12-team playoff in Enid, Oklahoma. 

You can watch the NJCAA selection show here.

"I think for us it kind of reflects the past three years of work within the program," Arizona Western head coach Victor Verdugo said. "Being in the national semi-finals two years ago, the national runner-up last year, back-to-back district champions the past two years, the program has built itself up."

The Lady Matadors will play a round robin format starting on Sunday. All 12 teams in the tournament are placed in three team pools, the team with the best record after playing each of the teams in their pool, will advance to the national semi-final round. Arizona Western is the top seed in Pool C and placed with familiar foe Salt Lake Community College and Trinity Valley. 

"This year you see the quality of the teams in the tournament," Verdugo said. "Salt Lake, a team that is always up there in the national picture, Trinity Valley is a great program that is up and coming. If we expect to be a national champion, these are teams we're going to have to face. For us it's a difficult group but we'll take it one game at a time." 

The Lady Matadors will face Trinity Valley on Sunday, November 16th, at 4:00 PM central time. You can watch it live on the NJCAA Network.