Alaska will have at least one player on the pitch when the NCAA Division I soccer tournaments begin later this month.
Jack Green, a West High graduate, will be part of the American University team that opens first-round play in the men’s tournament on April 29. American University of Washington, D.C., will make its first tournament appearance since 2004 when it plays Jacksonville University in a first-round game.
Green, a sophomore midfielder, has scored one point in seven games this season, and it was a big one — a free kick that set up the tying goal in a 1-1 overtime draw with Navy on April 10 that secured American University a spot in the Patriot League conference tournament. There, the Eagles won both of their games to clinch the league’s automatic berth in the 32-team men’s tournament.
Two other players from Anchorage are on teams that qualified for the tournament, but neither have seen playing time this season.
Jake Stone, a multi-sport athlete at Dimond High, is a freshman who is the No. 3 goalkeeper at Air Force, which earned a bye into the second round of the men’s tournament and will play Seton Hall on May 2.
Kali Trevithick, who played with the Cook Inlet Soccer Club and Alaska Rush before leaving as a teen to pursue the sport in California, is a sophomore forward for the UCLA women’s team that is the No. 3 overall seed in the women’s tournament. The Bruins earned a first-round bye and will play a second-round game on April 30.
The college soccer season was moved from the fall to the spring this school year because of COVID-19. Teams played fewer matches than usual; Green’s American University team is 4-1-2 going into the tournament, Air Force is 7-4-1 and UCLA is 12-1-2.