NCAA Womens Tournament Announced

The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 25th NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, was announced today by the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Committee. The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first round; however, second round conference match-ups are permissible. When pairing teams, the committee is restricted by geographic proximity. Sites are selected for the first and second rounds to create the least number of flights; therefore, only 12 of the top 16 seeds will be hosting first- and second-round competition.

The four No. 1 seeds include the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the University of Notre Dame, Santa Clara University and the University of Texas at Austin. All four teams enter the tournament as automatic qualifiers and represent four different conferences.

North Carolina will host the University of North Carolina, Asheville, the Big South Conference champion, in a first-round match on Friday, November 10. Notre Dame, the Big East Conference champion, will host Oakland University, the Mid-Continent Conference champion, in its opening-round game. Texas, the Big 12 Conference champion, also earned a No. 1 seed and will travel to Storrs, Connecticut, for a match-up against Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus, the Northeast Conference champion. Santa Clara, the West Coast Conference champion, will host the University of Southern California, which garnered an at-large berth from the Pacific-10 Conference.

The No. 2 seeds include the University of California, Los Angeles, Florida State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Texas A&M University, College Station. Capturing No. 3 seeds are Wake Forest University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, the University of Illinois, Champaign, and the University of Florida. The University of Utah, Oklahoma State University, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, complete the top 16 seeded teams, each earning a No. 4 seed.

The Atlantic Coast and Big East lead all conferences with seven teams in the tournament. Five teams will represent the Southeastern Conference; four teams will represent the Big 12, the Big Ten and the Pac-10; and three teams will represent Conference USA, the Mountain West, and the West Coast Conference.

First-round matches will be played Friday, November 10, at campus sites, and second-round matches will be played Sunday, November 12, at the same campus sites. The two first-round contests hosted by Utah will be played Thursday, November 9 with the second-round game to be played Saturday, November 11. Third-round games will be played on campus sites November 17, 18 or 19, as will quarterfinal matches on November 24, 25 or 26. Times will be announced.

The 25th annual NCAA Division I Women's College Cup will be played December 1 and 3 at SAS Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. North Carolina State University, the Town of Cary, and the Capital Area Soccer League will serve as hosts.

Ten teams are making their first appearance in the tournament and include: Columbia University, Drake University, Grambling State University, University of Louisville, McNeese State University, University of Nevada, Niagara University, Old Dominion University, Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Toledo. North Carolina has captured the title 17 times. In the 2005 championship game, Portland defeated UCLA 4-0 as Most Outstanding Offensive Player, Christine Sinclair, netted two goals for the Pilots in the victory.