Nov. 10, 2008

View The Bracket!

INDIANAPOLIS --- The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 27th 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 or second rounds. When pairing teams, the committee follows geographic proximity parameters. Sites are selected for the first and second rounds to create the least number of flights.  Twelve of the top 16 seeds will be hosting first- and second-round competition.

The four No. 1 seeds include University of Notre Dame, an automatic qualifier from the Big East Conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an automatic qualifier from the Atlantic Coast Conference, and University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University from the Pacific-10 Conference.

Notre Dame will host University of Toledo, the Mid-American Conference champion, in a first-round match on Friday, November 14. North Carolina will host Western Carolina University, the Southern Conference champion, in its opening-round game. UCLA, the automatic qualifier from the Pacific-10, will host Fresno State, the automatic qualifier from the Western Athletic Conference. Stanford, an at large selection from the Pacific-10, will host the University of California, Santa Barbara, which garnered an automatic bid from the Big West Conference.

North Carolina is the only team who has been invited to the tournament every year since its inception in 1982.

The No. 2 seeds include University of Portland, University of Virginia, University of Florida and Florida State University. Capturing No. 3 seeds are the Boston College, Texas A&M University, College Station, Duke University and Wake Forest University. Oklahoma State University, University of Southern California, University of Missouri, Columbia and University of Colorado, Boulder complete the top 16 seeded teams, each earning a No. 4 seed.

The Atlantic Coast leads all conferences with eight teams in the tournament. Six teams will represent the Big 12 Conference, the Southeastern Conference and the Pacific-10.  Four teams enter the tournament from the Big Ten Conference and the Big East with three teams from the Colonial Athletic Association.   

Thirty conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2008 championship. The remaining 34 teams were selected at-large.

The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives follow:  America East Conference, Boston University; Atlantic 10 Conference, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Atlantic Coast, North Carolina; Atlantic Sun Conference, Belmont University; Big 12, Missouri; Big East, Notre Dame; Big Sky Conference, Northern Arizona University; Big South Conference, Radford University; Big Ten, Pennsylvania State University; Big West, UC Santa Barbara; Colonial, Northeastern University; Conference USA, University of Memphis; Horizon League, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Ivy Group, Harvard University; Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Fairfield University; MAC, Toledo; Missouri Valley Conference, University of Evansville; Mountain West Conference, Brigham Young University; Northeast Conference, Central Connecticut State University; Ohio Valley Conference, Morehead State University; Pacific-10, UCLA; Patriot League, United States Military Academy; Southeastern, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Southern, Western Carolina; Southland Conference, Texas State University-San Marcos; Southwestern Conference, Mississippi Valley State University; The Summit League, South Dakota State University; Sun Belt Conference, University of Denver; West Coast Conference, University of Portland; and Western Athletic Conference, California State University, Fresno.

Seven teams are making their first appearance in the tournament and include: Army, Belmont University, Long Beach State University, Morehead State, Northern Arizona University, Northeastern and South Dakota State.
First-round matches will be played Friday, November 14, at campus sites, and second-round matches will be played Sunday, November 16, at the same campus sites.  The first-round contest hosted by Brigham Young will be played Thursday, November 13 with the second-round game to be played Saturday, November 15. Third-round games will be played at on-campus sites November 21, 22 or 23. Quarterfinal matches will be played November 28, 29 or 30. Times will be announced.

The 27th annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played December 5 and 7 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. North Carolina State University will serve as host.

In the 2007 championship game, Southern California captured its first NCAA title with a 2-0 victory over Florida State. Trojans Amy Rodriguez and Kristin Olsen garnered Most Outstanding Player honors for offense and defense, respectively.

The complete bracket follows here.