“It’s been a long time coming,” says midfielder Alyssa Nishikawa from the bus taking her Fresno FC Ladies teammates to Seattle for the West Regional, Fresno’s first appearance in the WPSL Playoffs since joining the league. “We’ve deserved it for many years now.”

In Nishikawa’s first three years with Fresno, the team finished second in the PacNorth - Bay Area Division to California Storm: once by two points, once by five points, and, cruelest of all, in 2017 they were tied on points but lost the goal differential tiebreaker by just two goals.

In 2018, Fresno finally got over the hump. But even in going undefeated during the regular season, Fresno has had to overcome plenty of adversity to finally get to the playoffs.

In both matches against California (a win and a draw), Fresno overcame a second-half deficit to pick up a result. And Fresno would have lost out on the division crown to San Francisco if they hadn’t scored two second-half goals to erase a 2-1 halftime deficit and claim all three points.

After Fresno secured an important draw against the Storm, they dropped two points to San Ramon FC during the following midweek. According to coach Tim Carroll, his players had tired legs from the come-from-behind result against California at the weekend and many cut it close getting there on time from their day jobs for the Thursday evening kickoff. Even so, Fresno outshot San Ramon 28-to-1, but the one shot for the visitors, taken from quite a distance, made it into the back of the net on an uncharacteristic goalkeeper error.

The 1-1 draw meant that Fresno now had to run the table in order to be assured of the division title because their two main competitors, San Francisco and California, didn’t have to meet a single time during the course of the regular season and thus never had to split points.

But run the table Fresno did.

Even after locking up its first Bay Area division title, Fresno still had one last hurdle to clear on their way to the WPSL Playoffs: Utah Red Devils, which had a perfect record after winning the Mountain Division crown. Fresno fell into a 1-0 hole, took the lead back in front 2-1, but then conceded an equalizer on a penalty kick near the end of regulation. But Fresno scored two goals in the opening minutes of extra time and locked up the PacNorth crown.

“In years past, I feel like we have not had the capability to come from behind,” says Nishikawa. “But this year we had so much talent and just knew we needed to do whatever it took to win the game. When we were down a goal, you’d have really strong leadership with some of the girls that have been there, the veterans. They would lead the way mentally and physically — they show us by example.”

The core of that group of veterans is led by goal scorers Jaycee Ogden (six) and Nikki Schrey (three). Like, Nishikawa, they’ve been around since the beginning. They’ve been around for the heartbreaks, and now they’re here for the triumphs, too.

All that experience, the good and the bad, has prepared them for this moment.

“This isn’t the most explosive attacking team we’ve had,” Carroll said. “But it’s definitely our toughest team mentally.”

Fresno's next test comes on Saturday afternoon against FC Tucson Women. Carroll doesn't know much about what Fresno is running up against other than that, like his own team, Tucson won a tough conference to get to this point and have a deep roster of players with impressive college resumes. Carroll will take the first five to 10 minutes in and then start making adjustments.

He hopes his team won't have to come from behind to get the win this time, but there can be no doubting that they'd be up for the challenge, if it comes to that.