Women’s Soccer clinches playoff berth

Coach Ryan Joiner's first season in charge of the Mississippi Gulf Coast women's soccer program will end in the postseason.

The Bulldogs doubled up Hinds 4-2 in Raymond on Friday to clinch a spot in the Gulf South District Tournament.

"The girls have worked hard," Joiner said. "We've asked a lot of them this year, and we're excited for the program and the girls who didn't have this chance last year. We're gonna give anybody ewe play a tough game."

The Bulldogs (9-5-1, 5-4-1) are now fifth in the MACCC standings, the highest they can finish.

Gulf Coast qualified for the playoffs for the first time since the 2021 spring season. The Bulldogs finished second in the South Division that season and won their quarterfinal match against Northwest Mississippi.

The conference has done away with divisions and the Bulldogs are guaranteed to finish among the top seven team to earn a spot in the Gulf District Tournament which will be hosted by the MACCC champion. Jones won at Northwest on Friday and is the only unbeaten team in the conference. The Bobcats host Holmes on Tuesday in the regular-season finale.

Gulf Coast's Morgan Pickering (So., Wiggins/Stone) opened the scoring in the 41^st minute, with Sofia Reina (Fr., Bogota, Colombia/Liceo de la Universidad Catolica) picking up an assist. Pickering helped double the lead six minutes after the break, assisting on the 13^th goal of the season by Kyla Smith (Fr., Hurley/East Central).

Smith set up Valentina Marin to make it 3-0, and Marin caught the keeper out of the box to score from long range and answer a Hinds goal. The Eagles (1-12, 0-9) got a late goal.

Gulf Coast rested some key players and played without Isabella Reynolds (Fr., Pascagoula/Pascagoula) and Tiffany Beasley (So., Ocean Springs/Ocean Springs). The Bulldogs played everybody else on the roster.

"Our goal was to win the game, stay healthy and work on a couple of things," Joiner said. "In the end, we needed to make sure we walked off the field with very few injuries."

Gulf Coast will close out the regular season Tuesday with a trip to Summit. Kickoff at Southwest Mississippi will be at 5 p.m. A win would give the program its first 10-win season since 2016.

The Bulldogs will need some help from Meridian against Itawamba to hold onto the fifth spot. ICC has an extra game to play.

"It's kind of out of hands even if we do our job," Joiner said. "We've got to go get our three points against Southwest. If we do our job, where the cards will fall is out of our control. We've put ourselves in a good position by working hard, playing our best at the right time. We're really starting to peak and give everybody a tough game."

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.