SALT LAKE CITY – The 19th-ranked Westminster women's soccer team will face No. 14 Northwood (Fla.) in the opening round of the 2014 NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship on Saturday. Westminster will be playing in the National Championship for the second straight season and third time in the past four seasons.
 
Saturday's game will be played at Arrigo-Vecellio Soccer Field in West Palm Beach, Fla. The start time for the game will be announced later this week. The Griffins are unseeded in the 32-team field while Northwood enters as the No. 15-seed. The winner advances to the final site at the Orange beach Sportsplex in Orange beach, Ala. where they will face the winner between No. 2-seed William Carey (Miss.) and Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) on Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. MT.
 
The game on Saturday will be streamed live on the web and have live stats available. Links for these features are available at WestminsterGriffins.com.
 
Griffin Notebook
Westminster qualified for the NAIA national Championship by virtue of winning the Frontier/North Star Conference Tournament. They will head to Fla. at 15-3-2 on the season and riding a four-game winning streak. They defeated Carroll (Mont.), 2-1, in the tournament semifinals and then took a 2-1 overtime victory over Rocky Mountain (Mont.) for the title.
 
The Griffins have scored 43 goals this season for an average of 2.15 goals per game. They have scored at least one goal in six straight games and in 19 of the 20 games they have played this season. The team is taking 15.2 shots per contest and they get 54.9 percent of those attempts on goal. Westminster scores a goal on every 7.1 shots they take while recording 28 assists on the year.
 
Westminster sits tied for 13th in the NAIA by allowing just 0.60 goals per game and they are 18th in the country with 10 shutouts. Griffin opponents only attempt 6.7 shots per game and they score a goal on every 11.1 shots taken. The Griffins have only given up two goals in a game twice during the year, but they haven't posted a shutout since Oct. 19 at Carroll, a span of four games.
 
Rylei North leads the team and ranks 31st in the country with her school-record 15 goals this season. She also has two assists for a team-best 32 points while taking 79 shots and putting 52 of them on goal. Lexi Tucker has scored nine goals with four assists while Madison Roemer has added five goals. Nicole Carter leads the team with seven assists.
 
Abi Yanke has played all but 53 minutes the team has played in goal and she is 15th in the country with a 0.60 goals-against-average. Yanke has a new school-record 15 wins with 54 saves and .818 save percentage and eight shutouts.
 
About Northwood
Northwood will be making a ninth appearance at the National Championship on Saturday. They qualified for this year's field by winning The Sun Conference Tournament. The Seahawks are one of the hottest teams in the country after going 14-1-1 since a 1-0 loss to Oklahoma Baptist on Sept. 6. The lone loss during the span came to No. 1 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) on Nov. 5.
 
The team is fourth in the country with 73 goals and they average 3.48 goals per game – ninth in the NAIA. They have a NAIA-best 66 assists during the year while taking 18.05 shots per outing. Johanna Engberg leads the team and ranks fourth in the nation with 26 goals, including a NAIA-best eight game-winning goals. She has also tallied 12 assists to place fourth in the country with 64 points.
 
Postseason History
Westminster enters the National Championship at 8-4-2 all-time in postseason play after a pair of wins at the Frontier/North Star Tournament. They are 0-1-1 in their previous trips to the National Championship after playing Westmont (Calif.) to a 2-2 draw last season before being eliminated in penalties. The first appearance was a 1-0 loss at Concordia (Ore.) in 2011.
 
Against Northwood
Westminster and Northwood have met one time previously. That was a 2-1 overtime victory by Northwood on Sept. 4, 2010 in Fla. in which the Seahawks scored less than a minute into the start of overtime. The Griffins were outshot 22-7 in the game and they only recorded two shots on goal.
 
School Record Ranking
The NAIA released its first regular season edition of the coaches' top 25 poll on Sept. 23 and it had the Griffins ranked at No. 16 with 266 points. That is the highest ranking in school history, surpassing the No. 19 ranking the team held on Dec. 6, 2011. Westminster is ranked 19th in the final regular season poll that was released on Sunday and they have now been ranked in four straight polls and 21 polls all-time.
 
Record Unbeaten Streak
By opening the season going unbeaten in their first nine games, the Griffins established a new school record unbeaten span of 14 games dating back to last season. The 2-1 loss at then-No. 14 Spring Arbor (Mich.) was the team's first loss since a 2-1 loss to Rocky Mountain (Mont.) on Oct. 20, 2013. During the 14-game stretch, Westminster outscored the opposition 29-4 with 11 shutouts and a 12-0-2 record.
 
Scoring Streak
The Griffins 1-0 loss at Rocky Mountain on Oct. 11 snapped the teams streak of consecutive games with at least one goal at 22-straight. That was the longest such streak in school history and it began in a 1-1 draw at Rocky on Oct. 6, 2013. During the streak, Westminster went 15-2-5 while outscoring the opposition 54-11.
 
Second Half Success
Westminster has been dominate in the second half of games this season. They have outscored the opposition 26-8 after intermission while holding a 162-76 advantage in shots. The Griffins have found six game-winners after the 75th minute of play, including twice from Abby Holbrook and overtime winners from Heidi Lorschider and Rylei North.
 
15 Wins and Counting
Westminster's 15 wins this season and the most for a single season and school history, surpassing the 12 wins during the 2011 and 2012 campaigns. They will also finish the season with a school-record winning percentage and with the fewest losses in a season. The Griffins are one of just 20 teams to have at least 10 wins in every season since 2010. They have gone 64-30-9 (.658) since the start of the 2010 season and they were they first team to 10 wins this season.
 
New Record Holder
With her goal against Carroll on Oct. 26, Rylei North became the Westminster all-time leader with 21 goals. North has scored 15 goals and totaled 32 points this season, both School records. She enters the weekend atop the Westminster all-time list in goals with 25 and points with 53. During her career, North is averaging 0.69 goals per game and she has scored eight game-winning goals, including five this season.
 
A Year of Her Own
Lexi Tucker is closing out her career with a bang. The senior has scored nine goals and added four assists this season. She is fourth in the conference in goals and tied for third in points. Tucker has moved into the Westminster top-10 in 11 career categories and she sits fourth in both goals (17) and assists (10).
 
Carter Creating
Nicole Carter has been a center piece of the Griffin attack this season and she leads the Frontier/North Star Conference with seven assists. That total ranks tied for second-most for a season in school history, one off the record set by Margo Hickman in 2012. Carter has also moved into a tie for second with 12 career assists and again trails Hickman by one for the record and she sits tied for sixth at Westminster with 38 career points.
 
Model of Consistency
Since coming to Westminster for the 2011 season, Miranda Olsen has appeared in all 80 games the team has played. The senior is currently tied for first in school history in games played while ranking third with 5,940 minutes played. Her 62 consecutive starts is tied for the second-longest such streak in school history. Olsen has one goal and one assist this season with three goals in her career.
 
Climbing the Charts
Abi Yanke has been stellar in goal for the Griffins this season and she is currently 15th in the country with a 0.60 goals-against-average. The junior is the Westminster all-time leader with her career 0.63 GAA and .807 save percentage. Yanke ranks second all-time at Westminster with 23 victories and 16 shutouts, including eight this season.
 
NAIA National Championship Final Site
The winner of the 15 Opening Round Games of the NAIA National Championship will advance to the final site where a champion will be crowned on Dec. 6. The final 15 games will be played at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Ala. with second round games slated for Dec. 1-2. The quarterfinals will be played on Dec. 3 with semifinals on Dec. 5.