Women’s Soccer to Open NCAA Tournament Play Friday at Home vs. MaineWomen’s Soccer to Open NCAA Tournament Play Friday at Home vs. Maine

Women’s Soccer to Open NCAA Tournament Play Friday at Home vs. Maine

The seventh-seeded Knights will host the first-round match at 7 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex.

by James Warnick

ORLANDO – The UCF women’s soccer team has earned the No. 7 seed in its bracket and will host a 2025 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship First Round game at the UCF Soccer Complex on Friday at 7 p.m. against Maine.

The NCAA Tournament contest will air live on ESPN+ and live stats can be followed by visiting NCAA.com. General admission tickets for the match are $10 and available by visiting UCFKnights.com/tickets. The first 100 UCF students with valid UCF ID will receive free entry (first come, first serve). Stadium gates open at 6 p.m.

“We’re very excited to be hosting a first-round game against Maine. I’m extremely proud of our team. We set goals from the beginning, like every team does, and to see them coming to fruition feels good,” head UCF coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak said. “This is the NCAA Tournament where anything come happen. We’re looking forward to it, and we’ll be ready to go on Friday.”

The Knights will enter the tournament with an 11-3-5 overall record and being one of a conference-record eight Big 12 Conference institutions to qualify for the NCAA Tournament this year. The Black and Gold posted a 5-1-5 league record to finish sixth in the conference standings this season. UCF will not only enter the tournament as its bracket’s No. 7 seed but also holding the nation’s 30th-best RPI.

The NCAA appearance will mark the Knights’ first as a member of the Big 12 Conference and first since 2022 when it advanced to the tournament’s second round. The home game will mark the 11th time that UCF has hosted an NCAA Tournament First Round competition and the program’s first since 2017. In all, it will be the program’s 23rd all-time appearance in the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship. The Black and Gold currently hold a 19-22 all-time NCAA Tournament record.  

UCF had its 2025 Big 12 Tournament run come to a close last week in the quarterfinal round with a 3-2 setback to No. 11/4 Colorado. Prior to the loss, UCF was unbeaten in nine straight, as it went 5-0-4 over its final nine matches of the regular season. UCF also holds a 2-1-1 record on the year against nationally ranked foes and 3-1-2 versus teams that hold a top 25 RPI.

In last Monday’s Big 12 Tournament game against Colorado, the sixth-seeded Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of first-half goals, but the third-seeded Buffaloes responded with a trio of goals over the final 45 minutes to claim the contest.

Rajanah Reed and Ella Holloran each found the back of the net for the Knights in the contest and Liz Worden and Gabi Berchon were credited with assists. Big 12 Forward of the Year Hope Leyba led CU with a pair of goals, which included the game winner in the 65th minute. UCF’s Genesis Perez Watson finished with a match-high seven saves in goal to tie for a season-high.

SEASON LEADERS
Senior forwards Liz Worden and Rajanah Reed are tied atop the team in goals scored with seven apiece, while Honoka Hamano follows with four. Gabi Berchon is next with with three goals and Ella Holloran and Ainsley Moy have two each on the season. Tyra Eriksen, Jada Silvest, and Edidiong Etim have all chipped in with one. Worden also tops the assist charts with nine, and the points charts with 23, as well as leading the team in total shots with 53. Reed continues to lead the shots on goal tally with 26 shots on frame.

After recording seven more saves in the Big 12 Tournament, goalkeeper Genesis Perez Watson now totals 73 saves and a remarkable .830 save percentage, good enough for second in the Big 12. She has played all 1710 minutes of the season for UCF.

FIVE KNIGHTS TABBED ALL-BIG 12
UCF had a total of five players receive All-Big 12 honors last week. Senior forward Liz Worden led the way by being named to the conference’s first team. Behind Worden’s s first-team selection, teammates Rajanah Reed (forward), Honoka Hamano (midfield), Maria Tregansin (Midfield) and Genesis Perez Watson (goalkeeper) were all named to the conference’s second team. The honors marked the first All-Big 12 accolades for all five players.

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RED HOT AT THE RIGHT TIME
The Knights will enter Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener having lost only once in their last 10 games. Prior to dropping the 3-2 Big 12 Tournament contest to Colorado last week, UCF was unbeaten in nine straight matches with a 5-0-4 record during the stretch. Before the stretch, UCF’s last loss came back on Sept. 25 at Arizona. Over the course of the nine unbeaten contests, the Black and Gold recorded back-to-back victories over then-No. 17 Arizona State (3-2) and Utah (2-0) before picking up consecutive 0-0 draws versus Kansas State and Cincinnati. UCF then pulled out a 2-1 win at Oklahoma State before drawing 1-1 at Houston. The Knights then returned home to record back-to-back 2-1 victories over No. 16/10 Baylor and BYU, before capping the regular season with a 0-0 draw at No. 15/6 Texas Tech.

In all, the Knights hold just three losses on the year as they previously suffered a 1-0 setback to in-state foe FIU on Sept. 4.

NCAA TOURNAMENT SUCCESS UNDER COACH ROBERTS SAHAYDAK
Friday will mark UCF’s sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in the Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak era. In her 13th year at the helm of the Knights, Roberts Sahaydak has led the Black and Gold to NCAA appearances in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2022, and now 2025. This year also marks the fifth time out of six NCAA appearances under Roberts Sahaydak that the Knights will host a first-round game. UCF is 1-2-1 in first-round home matches under Roberts Sahaydak.

ABOUT MAINE
The Black Bears won their third straight America East tournament championship last week to qualify for their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Maine will enter the 2025 tournament with a 6-7-4 overall record and a fourth-place finish in the America East regular season with a 3-3-2 league mark. UMaine will enter Friday unbeaten in four straight matches after winning the season finale versus New Hampshire and then going 2-0-1 at the America East Championships to win the conference tournament last week with wins over UNH (quarterfinal) and Binghamton (semifinal), as well as edging Vermont in penalty kicks in the championship game. With last Sunday’s championship match all deadlocked at 2-2 through 110 minutes, the Black Bears were able to best Vermont, 4-3, in shootout fashion.

Maine had six players named to the America East All-Tournament Team last week in Madison Luke, Emily Supple, Elena Barenberg, Olivia Grisdale, Jordane Pinette and Luise Reinwald. Pinette and Grace Johnson both scored in last week’s America East Championship game for the Black Bears.

Pinette, Julie Lossius and Abbey Thornton lead UMaine on the season in goals scored with three apiece. Emma Nicholson paces the team in assists with four, while Pinette, Lossius and Nicholson lead in points with eight apiece. Barenberg fronts Maine in goal with 44 saves and a .746 save percentage.

The Black Bears are coached by Scott Atherley. Atherley is in his 27th season at the helm of Maine and has led the Black Bears to the NCAA Tournament three times under his guidance.

SERIES HISTORY VS. MAINE
Friday's NCAA Tournament First Round game will mark UCF and Maine's first-ever meeting on the pitch.

PEREZ WATSON’S STELLAR SEASON
UCF goalkeeper Genesis Perez Watson has had an impressive season so far, commanding a back line that has only conceded 15 goals, or 0.79 per game. Perez Watson’s seven clean sheets bests her two from 2024, and she has set career highs in save percentage (.830) and goals against average (.789), to rank second and third respectively in the Big 12. Her 73 total saves see her in fifth place in the conference.

After recording a pair of clean sheets last month against Utah and K-State, Perez Watson also took home Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week and Big 12 Conference Goalkeeper of the Week honors.

SILVEST AND ERIKSEN RANKED IN TOP DRAWER SOCCER MIDSEASON TOP 100
Redshirt sophomore defender Jada Silvest has been included in Top Drawer Soccer’s Women’s Midseason Top 100 Players list, taking the 80th spot, while freshman forward Tyra Eriksen was included as No. 58 on Top Drawer Soccer’s Midseason Top Freshmen.

Silvest has been an instrumental player for the Black and Gold this season, playing 90 minutes in all but two contests, in which she featured for at least 80 minutes in both. Silvest has been a key contributor to the Knights’ seven clean sheets in 2025, and has chipped in offensively as well, with a goal against then-No. 16/10 Baylor and a pair of assists on the season.

Eriksen, a true freshman from Sweden, has had a strong season for the Knights in which she has scored one goal and also recorded a pair of assists so far during her debut season at the college level. She has tallied a total of 16 shots with six shots coming on target on the year. The striker has played in all 19 matches with 15 starts for the Black and Gold.

BEST START AT THE D1 LEVEL
The Knights began the 2025 season with an unblemished 5-0-0 start. The 5-0 record marked the Black and Gold’s best start to a season in program history at the NCAA Division I level and the best since the program's inaugural season of competition in 1981 when UCF opened a perfect 7-0.

UCF opened the year with a 2-1 victory on the road at UAB and followed it up with a trio of home wins over Florida Atlantic (3-1), South Florida (4-1) and LSU (2-1). The Knights then defeated their second straight SEC foe on Aug. 28 with a 1-0 shutout victory at Florida.

UCF has outscored the opposition 28-15 on the season after scoring two more goals in the Big 12 Tournament against Colorado last week. And the 11 wins mark the most that the Black and Gold have had in a season since 2019 when they too tallied 11 victories.

UP NEXT
With a win on Friday night, UCF will advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament that will take place at a campus site on Thursday, Nov. 20. The winner of the UCF-Maine match will face the winner of the Duke-Elon game. If the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils win, the Black and Gold will travel to Durham, North Carolina to face Duke at Freeman Field at Koskinen Stadium. To view the bracket for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, click HERE.