It’s playoff time for the Blinn College men’s and women’s soccer teams.
Both Buccaneer clubs have punched their tickets to their respective region tournaments and now will begin their journeys toward an NJCAA Division I national championship.
Up first will be a Region XIV Tournament first-round match between the Blinn women and Trinity Valley Community College at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27, at Hohlt Park’s Rankin Field in Brenham, Texas. This will be Blinn’s first playoff game at Rankin Field since the program launched in 2018 and the team’s fourth consecutive postseason appearance.
The Buccaneers (11-4 overall) won the Region XIV South Division by virtue of a tiebreaker Tuesday when Angelina College defeated Jacksonville College to settle a three-way tie. Blinn owns the first seed out of the South, while Angelina and Jacksonville are second and third, respectively. All three teams finished the season with an 8-3 region mark. Trinity Valley will represent the North Division.
This is the first season of split divisions in Region XIV women’s soccer and the Bucs capitalized by capturing their first conference title.
“It’s been an incredible journey and a true testament to what our community is about,” said Blinn women’s head coach Alexandria Jackson. “A lot of people have been involved in making this program a success, and to be able to reward those efforts is an honor. Our girls deserve to be here, but we have to take it one step at a time and live in the moment during each game of the tournament because it’s win or go home.”
The Blinn men’s team finished the regular season 13-6 overall and 7-5 in the South and now begins play in the Gulf South District Tournament. The Bucs earned the third seed in the South to set up a first-round bout with Paris Junior College at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, in Paris, Texas.
Blinn is in the postseason for the sixth time in program history.
“This is the most exciting part of the season and the lads worked hard to get here,” Blinn men’s head coach Michael McBride said. “The team is getting better game by game, they continue to train extremely well, and we are looking forward to this opportunity.”
The Bucs earned the program’s first playoff victory in 2022 and McBride said his team will look to push the envelope one year later.
“Our goal is to go one step further and see what happens after that,” he said. “We’ re ready to make a little more history.”
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 44 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
