BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The CSU Bakersfield men's soccer team was able to get the help they needed on Saturday to earn a bid to the Western Athletic Conference tournament. 

The `Runners earned the six seed in the very competitive WAC and will play third seeded Seattle U on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

Seattle U enters the tournament with an overall record of 12-3-3 and finished with a conference record of 6-1-3.  Seattle U is led offensively by Sergio Rivas and Alex Roldan who both tallied 15 points on the season.  Seattle U also has had four players score five or more goals on the season.  Seattle U transfer goalkeeper Josh Adachi went 12-3-3 on the season with a 0.85 goals against average.

The `Runners head to Las Vegas with a WAC record of 4-5-1 and overall were 6-10-1.  CSUB was led offensively by sophomore Sebastian Mentel and his team leading six goals, but four of Mentel's six goals were scored during conference play.  The sophomore from Ontario has been on fire the last half of the season.  `Runners senior captain Jamie Carey-Morrell chipped in with five goals and an assist, not too shabby for a center back that only played 13 games on the season.

The `Runners are led defensively by redshirt freshman goalkeeper Detre Bell who has made 78 saves, many of them spectacular, and sports a 1.54 goals against average. 

The `Runners and Seattle U opened up WAC play with a match in Seattle against each other.  Seattle U came out on top 4-0, but that doesn't tell the whole story for the `Runners.  Something clicked with this team after that match.  After the loss in Seattle, CSUB was 2-6-1, so the `Runners went 4-4-1 the rest of the way, including wins against WAC conference representatives UNLV and GCU.  The `Runners allowed 13 goals during conference play, but remember, four of those came in the opening loss at Seattle U.  From that point on, the `Runners only allowed nine WAC goals against in the remaining nine contests.

`Runners Head Coach Richie Grant has a very young squad and seven starters are either freshmen or sophomores.  Some would argue that this may be Coach Grant's best coaching job since coming to Bakersfield.

"It's a special group of lads," Grant said.  "The boys came and trained on their own Saturday by themselves.  And then they went and watched the games together as a team.  So they're very invested in what happens."

The `Runners and Seattle U will kickoff on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Peter Johann Memorial Field in Las Vegas.  The match can be watched on the WAC Digital Network at www.wacsports.com/watch as well as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices.  The winner of the CSUB/Seattle U match will play the winner of the UNLV/GCU match on Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.