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UNCG earns bid to NCAA tournament, draws Memphis for first round
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – On Monday night, the UNC Greensboro women’s soccer team earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship. The Spartans will play Memphis at 7:30 pm Friday at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, NC. The first-round bracket also includes High Point and defending national champion North Carolina.
“It’s a great accomplishment to get in as an at-large bid, and it’s a great compliment to the type of season the girls have had,” stated head coach Eddie Radwanski. “I felt all along that we deserved it and this is not something that happens overnight. I felt the girls deserved to be in the tournament, and they’ve been rewarded for their efforts.”
UNCG goes into the tournament with a 15-4-1 record after falling, 3-1, to Furman in the Southern Conference Championships on Sunday. Prior to the loss, the Spartans won the regular-season title and were on a 25-game overall win streak against conference opponents. They still hold a 20-game regular-season unbeaten streak dating back to 2006.
The team didn’t have to wait long to find out it had made the cut. Within 45 seconds of the selection show’s start, the Spartans found themselves within the first four teams to appear on screen.
“Now we’re just excited,” said senior co-captain Karla Davis. “We definitely were nervous beforehand, more nervous than anything. Now we’re relieved and ready to show everybody what we can do.”
“It was great that they announced us first and I think it changed from one kind of nervous to the next because now we have the relief that we get to continue and keep going and that our season is not over,” added senior co-captain Mary Kate Towne. “We need to continue and prepare like we would for any other game ... we had a hiccup on Sunday and we get to keep going.”
“I think deep down everyone knew that we had the talent and the potential to do so well and it would have been a shame if we didn’t get to just show everyone the talent that we had,” said Davis.
This is the eighth time UNCG has made an appearance in the NCAA tournament and the second time a SoCon team has received an at-large bid. The last time was in 2000 when Furman received the bid. The Lady Paladins won the conference regular-season title before falling to the Spartans in the SoCon Championship, 1-0.
This is the first time in school history that the Memphis Lady Tigers have appeared in the tournament and the first time they have faced the Spartans. Memphis rounded out the C-USA postseason with a 2-0 shutout against UCF on Sunday to pull to a school-best record of 17-3-1.
Defensively, the Lady Tigers have a 0.83 goals against average and have allowed just 18 goals in 20 games. On the offensive side, they have seven players with double-figure points with Kylie Hayes leading the team with 25 (11g,3a).
This season the SoCon placed two teams in the tournament with Furman making the field of 64. After defeating UNCG in the SoCon Championship game, the Paladins earned the league’s automatic bid and will face Tennessee in the first round held in Knoxville, TN.
For more about UNCG women’s soccer and all other Spartan athletics log onto www.UNCGSpartans.com.
AGATE
NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament
First Round Friday, Nov. 16
At Chapel Hill, N.C.
High Point (11-7-3) at North Carolina (17-3-1)
UNC Greensboro (15-4-1) vs. Memphis (17-3-1)
At South Bend, Ind.
Illinois (11-6-2) vs. Louisville (13-5-2)
Loyola, Ill. (14-8-1) vs. Notre Dame (15-4-2)
At Athens, Ga.
Alabama A&M (10-6-3) at Georgia (17-3-2)
Duke (8-5-6) vs. South Carolina (14-6-2)
At West Lafayette, Ind.
Indiana (12-6-2) vs. Toledo (14-5-3)
Oakland (10-7-2) at Purdue (19-2-2)
At College Station, Texas
Stephen F. Austin (13-4-2) at Texas A&M (17-3-2)
Texas (14-3-5) vs. Brigham Young (17-3-2)
At Tallahassee, Fla.
LSU (11-4-7) vs. Samford (15-4-1)
Kennesaw State (17-3-0) at Florida State (13-5-3)
At Boston
Boston University (11-6-3) vs. Wake Forest (12-6-3)
Connecticut (12-5-1) at Boston College (11-5-3)
At Stanford, Calif.
Santa Clara (12-5-3) vs. California (14-5-0)
Sacramento State (11-3-5) at Stanford (14-2-4)
At State College, Pa.
Monmouth, N.J. (12-4-4) at Penn State (16-3-2)
Ohio State (12-9-1) vs. Hofstra (17-3-0)
At Morgantown, W.Va.
Penn (13-3-1) vs. James Madison (16-4-1)
Navy (13-4-4) at West Virginia (15-4-2)
At Gainesville, Fla.
Miami (9-6-5) at Florida (16-4-2)
Auburn (10-7-2) vs. UCF (14-4-3)
At Columbia, Mo.
Southeast Missouri State (12-2-3) at Missouri (13-7-0)
Creighton (11-7-2) vs. Southern California (14-3-2)
At Boulder, Colo.
Denver (13-4-4) vs. Portland (15-3-0)
Hawaii (15-4-2) at Colorado (9-7-4)
At Knoxville, Tenn.
Clemson (9-5-5) vs. Charlotte (16-4-1)
Furman (16-5-1) at Tennessee (13-4-2)
At Charlottesville, Va.
Loyola, Md. (10-5-5) at Virginia (11-3-6)
Georgetown (14-7-0) vs. William & Mary (14-4-2)
At Los Angeles
Oklahoma State (13-5-3) vs. San Diego (15-2-3)
Cal State-Fullerton (12-7-2) at UCLA (16-1-2)
- UNCG -
