SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The Lake Tahoe Community College mens’ and womens’ soccer teams are both back in the playoffs.

The Coyote women enjoyed another dominant year in the Golden Valley Conference in winning their fourth consecutive championship, all coming with unbeaten records.

The Coyotes finished on an 11-game unbeaten streak and won all eight conference games without surrendering a single goal, the first team to ever accomplish that feat.

They scored 61 goals in those eight games and were led this season by freshman Alyssa Grundy who broke LTCC’s single season record for goals with 31.

Sophomore Alex Trinidad’s 21 assists leads the nation and she is LTCC’s all-time points leader (101).

The Coyotes (10-4-3, 8-0 GVC) are the No. 18 seed in the Northern California Regional playoff bracket and had a play-in game Thursday against host No. 17 Evergreen Valley which they won 2-1. The Coyotes also beat Evergreen 5-2 on Monday, Nov. 8. Their reward for winning the play-in game is a 2 p.m. Saturday date with the tournament’s top seed, San Joaquin Delta.

“After the season we’ve endured, with smoke, fires, evacuations, COVID-related issues and even season-ending injuries, we’ve proven to be a resilient bunch,” said head Coach Jeremy Evans. “We’re playing our best soccer of the year. We’re grateful to be in the postseason, but we expect to win games now that we’re here. We’re not satisfied just making the playoffs. That being said, we’re in a much different position compared to previous years. We’re not looking at multiple home games as a top seed. We’re the 18 seed and that means we’re on the road every step of the way. That presents a unique challenge but one we’re comfortable with because, talent-wise, we don’t view ourselves as an 18 seed.”

The men are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and the first time since a postseason ban penalty was instituted by the California Community College Athletic Association due to inappropriate decisions from the previous coaching staff.

The Coyotes (10-7-3, 5-3-2 GVC) finished third in the GVC and earned the No. 13 seed.

Sophomore Ben Mitcheson leads the team in goals with eight despite playing much of the year at left defensive back.

The Coyotes will travel to De Anza on Saturday for the first round game. The Coyotes earlier this year lost 4-0 to De Anza and will try to reverse that result this weekend.

“After what this program has been through, not just this season but the previous seasons being ineligible for the postseason, we’re excited to be back in the playoffs where we belong,” Evans said. “Our success in the playoffs, however, will hinge on buying into the coaching staff’s plans. When we’ve done that, we have had some really good results this year. When we haven’t, we’ve suffered. Yet, we’ve had a good week of training preparing for De Anza and believe the group will be prepared to play one of the top teams in the state. We respect them, but we also feel as if we’ve learned some things from our first meeting and are planning to implement them into the game plan. If we follow the plan, we will be successful.”

Both the mens’ and womens’ brackets can be viewed at https://cccaasports.org/sports/msoc/2021-22/Releases/Soccer_brackets.