Women's Soccer: WVU Hosts Navy In NCAA First Round
November 12, 2007 08:58 PM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
November 12, 2007
NCAA BRACKET
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s soccer team will start its quest for the 2007 NCAA College Cup against Navy in the opening round of tournament action Friday, Nov. 16, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. West Virginia earned a No. 4 seed, its third seed in eight trips to NCAA tournaments.
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| The West Virginia women's soccer team watches the NCAA Selection Show. |
The Mountaineers are 5-7 all-time in NCAA tournament play including a 3-3 mark at home. WVU last hosted an NCAA tournament in 2003, a season in which West Virginia advanced to the Sweet 16.
Navy will make its third NCAA tournament appearance when traveling to Morgantown. The Midshipmen earned an automatic bid to this year’s NCAA tournament by winning its second consecutive Patriot League title. A year ago, the Midshipmen advance to the NCAA second round on penalty kicks (5-4) after a 0-0 draw with William & Mary.
West Virginia and Navy have met twice before with each team winning one game. Navy won 4-0 in 1996, WVU’s first season of soccer. The Mountaineers posted a 2-1 victory in 1997 in Annapolis, Md.
The past three years have seen the NCAA shift to a different seeding system for the tournament, abandoning the format where there were 16 national seeds that were assigned numbers 1-16. The current format has four seeds (listed 1-4) in each of the four quadrants of the bracket. West Virginia is the fourth seed in its portion of the bracket, with Penn State (16-3-2) the top seed, USC (14-3-2) the second seed and Florida (16-4-2) the third seed in WVU's quadrant of the bracket.
West Virginia owns a 4-4-1 record against eight teams that made the 2007 NCAA tournament. The Mountaineers defeated Penn State and Georgetown, and Louisville twice.
Five BIG EAST women’s soccer teams were selected for the 2007 NCAA Championship. Notre Dame will also host first and second round matches. Connecticut, Louisville and Georgetown will all take to the road in the first round.
The 64-team NCAA tournament field includes 30 conference champions receiving automatic bids and 34 at-large selections.
