(Portions of this story courtesy of the NCAA)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The 2015 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference women's soccer regular season and tournament champion Trinity University Tigers, earned the program's seventh straight NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship bid on Monday afternoon. Interactive Bracket | Printable Bracket
The Tigers earned the SCAC automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs by virtue of their 4-0 win over Texas Lutheran University yesterday afternoon. The SCAC championship was the seventh consecutive league crown for Trinity and assured the Tigers of their 21st appearance in NCAA postseason play since 1992.
Trinity (19-0-1) will serve as one of 16 first/second round host sites, with play being conducted on Friday-Saturday, November 13-14 at Paul McGinlay Field.
Trinity (19-0-1), which is ranked second in the nation, opens first round play against ninth-ranked University of Texas-Tyler (13-2-2) - a team that provided the only blemish on the Tigers resume as the two played to a 1-1 draw back on Sept. 11. Friday's match is slated for 5 p.m. On the other side of the bracket, Hardin-Simmons University (14-2-1), who just defeated UT-Tyler, 2-0, for the American Southwest Conference tournament championship on Sunday, will play the University of California-Santa Cruz (5-10-3), winners of the automatic bid from the Great South Athletic Conference. Kickoff for that match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The winners of Friday's matches will play on Saturday at 6 p.m. with the winner advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.
Forty-four conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the 2015 championship. The final 20 berths were reserved for Pool C, which include institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams.
Sixteen four-team sites will conduct first- and second-round play on the first weekend of the championship, November 13 and 14 or 14 and 15. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites November 20 and 21 or 21 and 22. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the semifinals December 4 and 5, at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri.