![\"Group](\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2025\/11\/ncaa-watch-party-wsoc.jpg\")
When the UCF women\u2019s soccer team lost starting defenders Brooke Mulroney and Kalena Bellini to devastating injuries within days of each other at the start of Big 12 Conference play in September, it would have been easy for outsiders to write off the Knights. Especially after the team lost a road game at Arizona, 1-0, on their first outing without Mulroney and Bellini on the field.<\/p>\n
Their mentality? Don\u2019t tell us the odds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the team from the very beginning, no successful team goes through any journey that is easy. This is part of our journey,\u201d UCF head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak says. \u201cHow are we going to respond to this? You have the ability to go out there and play for them. Believe in how good you are. Visualize doing great things and the rest will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
From that point on, the Knights closed the regular season with a nine-match unbeaten streak, helping them clinch the No. 7 seed and hosting rights in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
UCF will hold a first-round game on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex against Maine, who just won its third-straight America East championship title.<\/p>\n
The Knights are one of a conference-record eight teams from the Big 12 selected to participate in this year\u2019s NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter what we went through on a weekly basis in the Big 12 this year \u2014 a historical year with how many teams earned postseason bids \u2014 what excites me as we head into the NCAA Tournament is we\u2019ve seen the best in the country. We are part of that,\u201d Roberts Sahaydak says. \u201cObviously it\u2019s one game at a time, and that starts with Maine, but the team should be feeling really confident because they are prepared from the physical and tactical and mental tests they\u2019ve had all season.\u201d<\/p>\n