Robert Williams celebrated winning back-to-back regional titles with his Dallas College-Brookhaven women’s soccer team last weekend.

The Bears assistant coach watched proudly as the defending champions romped to a comfortable 5-0 win over No 8-ranked Mountain View College in the NJCAA South District Championship game on Saturday to complete the regular-season double, having already sewn up the Dallas Athletic Conference title.

“There was a lot of pressure on us since we were the preseason favourites and ranked No 1 before we even kicked a ball,” Williams, the former Devonshire Colts forward, told The Royal Gazette.

“Our aim is to always be the best team in the country and win multiple championships. We achieved that goal by beating Mountain View College 5-0.

“Goals from freshmen players Italia Avila, Julie Castro, Abigail Gutierrez and sophomores Tori Sifuentes and Kelsey Vickrey capped a great season and ensured that we remained perfect this season and gave us back-to-back regional titles.

“On top of winning the Dallas Athletic Conference and NJCAA South District Championship, we have also scored 64 goals without conceding, which is a phenomenal feat.”

The Bears are also the NJCAA Division III champions and clinched their spot in the national tournament for the fourth time in five seasons courtesy of last weekend’s thumping win.

“We have five players remaining from last season's championship team along with 16 great freshmen who have been tremendous for us all season,” Williams said.

The defending champions are the No 1-ranked team heading into the national tournament to be held at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey, from June 2 to 5.

“We should be the tournament favourites,” Williams said. “But we all know that means nothing in one-off games.

“This week we will prepare the team and have them ready for the big stage with the hopes of winning it back-to-back for the first time in our programme’s history.”

The Bears were also crowned as national champions in 2017.

Reflecting on the regular season, Williams added: “First of all, I'm extremely happy that we were able to have our season. It was pushed back from the fall and then nearly cancelled in the spring because of Covid. This has been a very unusual season with all the Covid protocols and trying to keep our team safe and secure.

“Fortunately we were able to persevere and make it through with one of our most successful seasons in our programme’s history.

“Jimmy Elder [head coach] and I have worked these young ladies pretty hard since last fall to prepare them for this season.

“It was definitely different not having any preseason games to prepare the team and work out any kinks and flaws that we had. We basically had to hit the ground running and work things out during the season.”