NVC men's soccer team opens NorCal Regionals on Nov. 23 at Santa Rosa Junior College
By MARTY JAMES
The Napa Valley College men's soccer team, the Bay Valley Conference champion, is the No. 16 seed and will take a four-game winning streak into the 2019 California Community College Athletic Association Championships.
Napa Valley (9-7-2 overall, 8-1-1 Bay Valley Conference) opens the single-elimination Northern California Regionals on Saturday, Nov. 23 at No. 1 seed Santa Rosa Junior College.
The match starts at 1 p.m.
Santa Rosa won the Big 8 Conference title and takes a six-game winning streak into the tournament.
A nonconference match between Napa Valley and Santa Rosa (16-1-2 overall, 9-0-1 Big 8 Conference), scheduled for Oct. 29, was postponed.
There are 16 teams in the regionals, with seven other Round 1 matches scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23.
Napa Valley is the lone team from the Bay Valley Conference in the bracket. The Storm won its third straight Bay Valley title and has a 7-1-2 record over its last 10 matches.
The Storm has outscored its opponents, 29-21 overall, and 25-8 in conference matches.
In other first-round matches:
* No. 9 seed West Valley-Saratoga (10-6-3 overall, 8-3-1 Coast-North Conference) is at No. 8 seed City College of San Francisco (7-2-9 overall, 6-2-4 Coast-North Conference).
* No. 13 seed American River-Sacramento (11-8-3 overall, 5-4-1 Big 8 Conference) is at No. 4 seed Foothill-Los Altos Hills (13-1-5 overall, 8-0-4 Coast-North Conference).
* No. 12 seed Clovis (12-3-6 overall, 4-1-3 Central Valley Conference) is at No. 5 seed Canada-Redwood City (13-6-1 overall, 8-4 Coast-South Conference).
* No. 15 seed Cabrillo-Aptos (9-7-3 overall, 6-4-2 Coast-South Conference) is at No. 2 seed Fresno City (13-1-7 overall, 5-1-2 Central Valley Conference).
* No. 10 seed Hartnell-Salinas (11-6-2 overall, 8-3-1 Coast-South Conference) is at No. 7 seed Butte-Oroville (19-1-2 overall, 10-0-2 Golden Valley Conference).
* No. 14 seed Feather River-Quincy (11-4-4 overall, 8-1-3 Golden Valley Conference) is at No. 3 seed Folsom Lake (12-5-5 overall, 5-3-2 Big 8 Conference).
* No. 11 seed San Joaquin Delta-Stockton (11-6-4 overall, 4-4-2 Big 8 Conference) is at No. 6 seed De Anza-Cupertino (10-3-6 overall, 7-0-5 Coast-South Conference).
Round 2 is scheduled for Nov. 26 or 27.
Round 3 is scheduled for Nov. 30.
The state finals are scheduled for Dec. 6 and 8 at De Anza College in Cupertino.
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association, Associated Press Sports Editors, and California Prep Sports Media Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in September of 2019.