John Brown women's soccer team to play Baker in opening round

The John Brown women's soccer team will play Baker (Kan.) at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Field in the opening round of the NAIA Soccer National Championship.

Brackets for the national tournament were released Monday morning by the NAIA with 40 teams competing at 10 sites, including Siloam Springs, and four teams at each site. Opening round semifinals will be played on Thursday and finals on Saturday.

The winner of the 10 opening round sites advance to the 37th annual NAIA National Championship final site in Foley, Ala., on April 27-May 3.

John Brown knew going into Monday's reveal that it would host a game on Thursday, but the opponents were not revealed until Monday.

The Golden Eagles (12-0) -- regular season and tournament champions for Sooner Athletic Conference -- garnered a No. 2 seed and will face Baker (12-5-1), a Heart of America at-large team.

Oklahoma Wesleyan (17-2), the champion of the Kansas Collegiate Conference, was the No. 1 seed and will face Bethel (Tenn.), 9-5-1, Mid-South at-large in the other semifinal at 3:05 p.m. Thursday.

The finals will be at 2:05 p.m. Saturday at Alumni Field.

John Brown will be making its seventh strip to the national tournament after the Golden Eagles won their fourth conference tournament last Thursday with a 5-1 win over Science and Arts.

JBU has outscored its opponents 53-2 this season.

Sienna Carballo leads the team with 27 points, including a team-high 11 goals with five assists. Lauren Walter had seven goals and seven assists (21 points), while Paige Kula has four goals and 12 assists (20 points).

Goalkeeper Caitlyn Logan has 20 saves and only allowed two goals in 12 games. She's helped John Brown record 10 shutouts on the season.