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The No. 4 seeded Warriors are visiting the campus of the top seed Western Washington and will face No. 5 seed Seattle Pacific, the GNAC tournament winner. Thursday's match against SPU is at 7 p.m. with the winner of the first round contest advancing to Saturday's 1 p.m. date with the WWU Vikings.

Thursday, 7 p.m.
vs. Seattle Pacific, at Harrington Field, Bellingham, Wash. [Live Stats & Video]

Series Notes: The Warriors and the Falcons have only met once before, on Sept. 1, 2007, in Seattle. Seattle Pacific won that match, 7-1.

The Rest of the West: On the other half of the West bracket, CCAA champion Cal State L.A. (16-1-3) is the No. 2 seed and will host a second-round game on Saturday against Thursday's first-round winner between No. 3 Cal Poly Pomona (13-5-1) and No. 6 Point Loma Nazarene (12-3-1).

At Stake: The two victorious second-round teams from the West will meet somewhere in the South Central Region to decide the Best of the West on Nov. 20. The West Region champion will play the South Central winner at the same site on Nov. 22 in the quarterfinals. The winner of that site then advances to the semifinals and finals in Louisville, Ky.,
on Dec. 4 and 6.

A Stellar Season Continues: The Warriors sat out the CCAA Championships last week but their season continues with the bid into the tournament as the No. 4 seed. The Warriors posted an impressive 13-4-1 regular season, including a perfect 7-0-0 mark during the non-conference portion of the schedule before going 6-4-1 in the tough CCAA.

Looking for NCAA Win: The Warriors are making their third NCAA tournament appearance. They are 0-1-1 in NCAA tournament play after losing to Cal State San Bernardino, 1-0, in overtime last season in the second round match at home at Warrior Stadium. In 2011, the Warriors tied Chico State 1-1 before being eliminated by the penalty kick tiebreaker, 4-3.

Poon Top Rookie in CCAA: Jade Poon followed super star Karenee Demery's foot-steps and was named the CCAA's Freshman of the Year after an impressive first year. The rookie from Sacramento led the conference with 13 goals and 29 points to garner the award. In 2010, Demery was the top freshman in the CCAA after scoring 19 goals … Poon was a three-time CCAA player of the Week selection in 2014.

All-CCAA Stars: Joining Jade Poon on the All-CCAA first team was defender Karli Nestler and second team honoree Lauren Thornton, as they led the Stanislaus defense. Warriors making the list for honorable mention were GK Chelsea Lewandowski, F Mikayla Clifford, F Kirsten Coleman, D Maryssa McDuffy and D Nichole Donald.

Warriors In the Rankings: The Warriors had spent 22 consecutive regular season weeks in the NSCAA Top 25, dating back to the 2012 season until the streak was snapped in Week 7. They made a brief return to the poll in week 8 but dropped out again prior to the conference tournament.

Road Warriors: The Warriors have been extremely successful on the road in recent years with an impressive mark of 22-3-4 over the last 29 matches, which dated back to the middle of the 2011 season. A 25-match unbeaten streak was snapped on Sept. 28 at Cal State Monterey Bay.

A Visit to the Northwest: This week the Warriors are playing outside of the state of California for the first time since Sept. 2, 2012. The Warriors were at Saint Martin's in Lacey, Wash., on Aug. 30 before crossing the boarding to face Simon Fraser.

Blanking Opponents: The Warriors blanked their foes nine times in 2014, including the last three matches. They also shutout Cal State L.A. the No. 2 seed and CCAA champion, 0-0 in Turlock on Oct. 28. Chelsea Lewandowski was credited with six of those shutouts and has 16 in her career.

Prolific Offense: The Warriors are among the nation's top scoring teams with a 2.17 goals per match and 39 goals total. Stanislaus ranks third in the CCAA in scoring, six goals behind leader Cal State L.A. … Nine different players have scored goals this season with Jade Poon leading with 13 (six game-winners). Kirsten Coleman and Mikayla Clifford have eight and seven goals, respectively.

One-Goal Losses: All four Stanislaus losses this season were the 1-0 variety with three of them on the road. The Warriors went through a dry-spell, Oct. 12-19 and went 0-3 in three 1-0 defeats.

Falcons Familar with Postseason: This marks the 12th straight appearance for SPU, which has a 16-9-3 record in all-time postseason games. The Falcons won the 2008 NCAA championship with a 1-0 double-overtime triumph over top-ranked and undefeated West Florida. Last season they defeated Sonoma State 1-0 in the first round before losing 2-0 at Western Washington in the regional semifinal. The Falcons reached the Final Four on three occasions (2005, 2007, 2008), participating in the 2005 and 2008 national title games … SPU is 8-1-2 in its playoff openers and has not lost a first round match since 2003

About SPU: The Falcons are undefeated over their last five games with four wins and a tie during that stretch. The draw was a 1-1 double-overtime result against Western Washington in Saturday's GNAC Tournament championship game. SPU claimed the title by virtue of a 5-4 victory in the penalty kick tiebreaker.

Top Falcons: Sophomore forward Hannah Huesers leads the league with 14 goals, including five game-winning strikes for the Falcons, who have outscored foes by a 37-14 margin. The offense also features junior midfielder Isabel Farrell, the 2014 GNAC Player of the Year. She compiled eight goals and seven assists. Led by goalkeeper, Alexa Hughes,the SPU defense blanked six foes and allows just 0.71 goals per game.

Against the GNAC: Cal State Stanislaus is 4-2-0 all-time against teams in the GNAC with wins over Simon Fraser (2-0), Saint Martin's (1-0), and Western Washington (1-1).