Santa Clara University women’s soccer set for national title stage

“I think the most important part is I’m embracing the role I have,” Morales said. “So, that means if I’m bringing energy from the bench, I’m willing to do that. … At the end of the day I

just want the team to succeed.”

By historical standards, No. 11-seeded Santa Clara isn’t a typical Cinderella team. Sure, the small Jesuit private university doesn’t get the same spotlight on its athletics as do the four women’s soccer programs the Broncos have knocked off in the tournament — 4-1 over Ohio State May 1; 2-0 over Arkansas May 5; 1-0 over Clemson May 9; and 3-1 over North Carolina in the tourney semifinals May 13 — but Santa Clara is no stranger to the postseason.

Santa Clara has advanced to the College Cup tournament — the women’s soccer equivalent of the Final Four — 11 times in program history and won the national championship in 2001. And, of course, there’s the shout-out in the 2002 film “Bend It Like Beckham” when, after the two main characters are accepted to travel halfway around the world to play there, Keira Knightley’s character Jules lets fly with a celebratory cry of: “Santa Clara!”

Still, Morales said one of the rallying cries of the non-fiction 2020-21 Broncos has been to put their small West Coast Conference on the map.

“That’s what we’ve been doing and proving everybody wrong,” Morales said. “There’s a lot of doubters as we go into the NCAA tournament and that just fuels our fire … that sure, we might not be a big conference, but we can play with the big dogs.”

Monday will mark the first time any soccer team for which the 5-foot-2 Morales has ever played will vie for a championship. She got close as a junior at Menlo-Atherton when the Bears advanced in the Central Coast Section Open Division tournament, only to fall in the semifinals to Archbishop Mitty.

By that time, Morales had already committed to Santa Clara, a place she considered her home away from home on the soccer pitch. Growing up playing for the De Anza Force soccer club, she frequently practiced and played there.

“For me personally, I’ve always wanted to go to Santa Clara,” Morales said. “Just from club, I always practiced at Santa Clara University, so it was so very comfortable and so very familiar to me that I just fell in love with it.”

The strange season of 2020-21 almost derailed Santa Clara’s dance with destiny though. With collegiate soccer normally being played in the fall, the Broncos, being at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Santa Clara County, were under some of the strictest protocols in the nation when they returned to the pitch in February.

The Broncos has to maintain strict pods while living exclusively in Santa Clara County. That meant no commuting for the occasional stays at her family home in Menlo Park for Morales, where she resided during the coronavirus lockdowns and quarantines of 2020.

Then Santa Clara had its scheduled Feb. 14 season opener at Stanford canceled. The next date on the calendar, a Feb. 20 match at Pepperdine, was postponed. But when the Broncos finally hit the field Feb. 27 against Portland at Buck Shaw Field, they started rolling, opening the season with a five-game win streak. In fact, the only blemish on 10-1 Santa Clara’s season record is a March 31 loss 2-1 to Brigham Young.

“Well, we knew we had a special team, and we honestly just took it one game at a time,” Morales said. “That’s what we’re doing right now is just staying in the game and living in the moment.”

Now, as they prepare to take on No. 1 Florida State Monday in Cary, North Carolina at 2:30 p.m., the Broncos will look to live the ultimate moment. Morales knows it is unlikely she will see the field with the likes of midfielders Izzy D’Aquila and Skylar Smith shining so brightly in the NCAA tournament spotlight.

Through Santa Clara’s four tournament wins, D’Aquila had three goals and two assists, including the assist on the game’s lone goal in the Broncos’ 1-0 with over Clemson in the tournament quarterfinals. Smith has also racked up three goals. Each of these totals betters the team’s leading scorer on the season, senior forward Kelsey Turnbow, who has converted two postseason goals.

There’s no quelling Morales’s anticipation for Monday’s kickoff, however.

“Personally, I’m super excited, honestly,” Morales said. “Just locked in and doing what I can to support the team. And that’s something I’ve been doing throughout this whole tournament. That doesn’t change just because this is a national championship game. … Once kickoff starts, it’s just back to a regular soccer game, honestly.”