ACC Gets Nine, SEC Eight In NCAAs

The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 30th NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, includes a record nine teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and eight teams from the Southeastern Conference.

Previously, the most SEC teams in the national tournament was six. Five teams enter the tournament from both the Big 12 Conference and the Pac-12.

The four # 1 seeds include Duke, an at-large selection from the ACC, Florida State, the automatic qualifier from the ACC, Stanford, the automatic qualifier from the Pacific-12 Conference and Wake Forest, an at-large selection from the ACC.

Duke will host Radford, the Big South Conference champion, in its opening-round game. Florida State will host Samford, the automatic qualifier from the Southern Conference. Stanford will host Montana, the Big Sky Conference champion, in a first-round match, and Wake Forest will host Oakland, the Summit League champion.

The # 2 seeds include Florida, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Virginia. Capturing # 3 seeds are Auburn, North Carolina, Pepperdine and Texas A&M. Memphis, Penn State, Boston College and Tennessee complete the top 16 seeded teams, each earning a No. 4 seed. North Carolina is the only team who has been invited to the tournament every year since its inception in 1982.

The other three ACC teams receiving at large berths are Maryland, Miami, and Virginia Tech. The other five SEC teams in the postseason bracket are Kentucky, LSU, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. Both Louisville and Central Florida also received at-large berths.

Among the automatic qualifiers were conference champions from the Atlantic Sun (Florida Gulf Coast), Big East (West Virginia), Big South (Radford), Colonial Athletic Association (William & Mary), Conference USA (Memphis), Ohio Valley (UT Martin), Southwestern (Arkansas-Pine Bluff) and Sun Belt (Florida International).

Thirty conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2011 championship, while the remaining 34 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. Sites are selected for the first round to create the least number of flights.