Story courtesy of Toledo Sports Information
The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 30th NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, was announced live this afternoon on ncaa.com. The post-season tourney field consists of 30 automatic qualifiers and 34 at-large selections. The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first or second rounds.
Should the Rockets get past the Golden Eagles on Saturday, the Midnight Blue & Gold will play the winner of the Penn State (19-4-0)-Army (13-2-5) matchup in Happy Valley, PA. The site of that second-round contest to be played on Friday, Nov. 18 is undetermined at this time. The Nittany Lions are the No. 4 seed on this side of the bracket after winning the Big Ten Conference regular-season title for the 14th time in school history.
Toledo earned the Mid-American Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championships for a league-record fourth time by winning the tourney crown this past weekend. The 2011 MAC regular-season champions defeated No. 8 seed Ohio, 8-0, in the quarterfinals, No. 5 seed Buffalo, 3-1, in the semifinals and No. 3 seed Western Michigan, 1-0, in the finals to return to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2008.
Marquette enters Saturday’s action with a 17-3-0 overall record, including a 10-1-0 mark in the Big East. The Golden Eagles most recently suffered a 1-0 loss to Notre Dame in their conference tourney quarterfinals match at home, snapping their nine-match win streak.
Head Coach Brad Evans and Toledo Players Reaction to NCAA Tournament Pairings