SPOKANE, Wash. -- Whitworth was not selected as an at-large participant in the 2008 NCAA Division III women's soccer tournament on Monday morning. The disappointing news arrived with the announcement of the tournament bracket by the NCAA.

The 12th-ranked Pirates finished the season with a 15-4-1 record, winning nine of their final ten contests. Whitworth finished second in the Northwest Conference for the second season in a row. NWC champion Puget Sound is the second seed in the tournament and has a first round bye.

The Pirates were hoping for one of the 16 Pool C (at-large) bids to the 61 team tournament. Whitworth has a better overall and in-region record than at least six of the at-large participants (Chicago 12-5-1, Illinois Wesleyan 15-6, Nazareth 12-7-1, Redlands 14-5-1, Rochester 11-5-2, TCNJ 12-6-1).

Most surprising to Whitworth officials is the inclusion of Redlands. The Pirates had been ranked higher than the Bulldogs in official NCAA west region rankings throughout the season. Redlands suffered a loss to unranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the final of the SCIAC tournament championship game over the weekend. Against common opponents, Whitworth is 2-1 while the Bulldogs are 1-1.

Nevertheless, 2008 will still enter the record books as one of the best in school history. The .775 winning percentage is the second highest in school history to the .857 of 2007 when the Bucs finished 18-3. Only only the 2007 season and 1996 team (16-5-2) won more games than the 2008 squad.