NCAA Division I women’s soccer championship field announced
INDIANAPOLIS (Via NCAA) – The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 35th NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, was announced on Monday by the Division I Women’s Soccer Committee.
+Division I Women’s Soccer Championship Interactive Bracket
The four No. 1 seeds include Stanford University, the automatic qualifier out of the Pac-12 Conference, and West Virginia University, the automatic qualifier from the Big-12 Conference. The University of Florida, the automatic qualifier out of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and fellow SEC member University of South Carolina, Columbia, also earned No. 1 seeds.
Houston Baptist University, an automatic qualifier from the Southland Conference, will face Stanford in the opening round. West Virginia will host Northern Kentucky University, the Horizon League champion. Florida will host Florida Gulf Coast University, the ASUN Conference champion, and South Carolina will host Alabama State University, the automatic qualifier from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
The No. 2 seeds include Georgetown University, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame and University of Southern California. Capturing the No. 3 seeds are Clemson University, Duke University, Florida State University and University of Virginia.
Auburn University, Brigham Young University, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, each earned a No. 4 seed to complete the top 16-seeded teams.
The Big Ten Conference led all conferences with eight teams in the tournament. The Atlantic Coast Conference followed with seven teams, and the Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC will each have six representatives in this year’s tournament.
Thirty-one conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2016 championship, while the remaining 33 teams were selected at-large. 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. The top 16 teams will host and all other sites were selected for the first-round to create the least number of flights.
First-round games will be played November 11, 12 and 13 at campus sites. Second-round games will be played Friday, November 18 at campus sites, and third-round games will be played Sunday, November 20 at the same campus sites. Quarterfinal games will be played November 25 or 26 also on campus sites.
The 35th annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played December 2 and 4 at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California, with the West Coast Conference and the San Jose Sports Authority serving as co-hosts. The first national semifinal will be played and shown live on ESPNU at 5 p.m. Eastern Time Friday, December 2. The second semifinal will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time live on ESPNU. The national championship match will take place at 6 p.m Eastern Time on Sunday, December 4 and will also broadcast live on ESPNU.
