All they want to do is play. Compete. Earn the right to call themselves champions...again. That opportunity has been on delay for the Madison College women's soccer team, who will finally open postseason play Wednesday night at Irwin A. & Robert D. Goodman Pitch-East with the NJCAA Region IV Division III Championship. 

The WolfPack, ranked #10 in the latest NJCAA Division III Poll, are the defending Region IV and District D champions after making a magical run to the program's first-ever appearance at the NJCAA Division III National Tournament in 2017, the program's fourth year of existence. They have followed up that 15-3-2 campaign with an 11-1-1 mark so far this fall, and won their second consecutive North Central Community College Conference (N4C) championship.

With the arrival of the postseason, Madison College is trying to overcome one major problem: a lack of competition. The WolfPack did not play two of their final regular season matches due to cancellations and forfeits. The region's number one seed then earned the 'Pack a bye through the quarterfinals, but fourth-seeded Elgin Community College had to forfeit that match due to a lack of available players, moving Madison to the title match for a second straight year.

When kickoff finally arrives on Wednesday, it will have been exactly two weeks since their last match, a 1-1 tie at home to Joliet Junior College (15-3-1). The second-seeded Wolves will be the opponent again in a repeat of last year's Region IV finale and played two matches since that last meeting, a 9-0 blanking of Rock Valley College in their last regular season game and a 3-1 defeat of third-seeded Harper College in the tournament semifinals this past Saturday.

Madison College is 9-2-1 all-time against JJC, including two postseason wins in 2015 and 2017, however, the matches have been very close with the 'Pack owning a 9-6 scoring advantage in the last seven matches, all but one of which have been decided by a single goal. Wednesday's winner will advance to and host the NJCAA District D Tournament on October 27-28 against the winners from Region XII (Delta College) and XIII (Anoka-Ramsey Community College).

Head coach Matt Schwartz and the WolfPack have been led by the sophomore tandem of Peyton Trapino and Britt Schumann. The two DeForest, Wisconsin, natives, rewrote the Madison College record books, with Schumann becoming the school's all-time leading goal scorer last year and Trapino setting the all-time assists record early this season. Trapino, a midfielder, currently has 49 total points on 13 goals and 23 assists, the second highest assist total in the country. Schumann, a striker, boasts 14 goals and two assists for 30 total points.

Freshman goalkeeper Kelly Kubicek is also on a record-setting pace, collecting eight shutouts so far this season to tie current goalkeeper's coach Brandie Gospodarek for the single-season record. The native of Oregon, Wisconsin, claims the nation's fourth-lowest goals-against average at 0.58, with seven total goals given up over a dozen matches.

Wednesday's Region IV Division III Women's Soccer Championship can be streamed live at MadisonCollege.tv.





Follow WolfPack women's soccer: Facebook | Twitter