2017 NCAA Soccer Bracket
NEW YORK – For the 23
rd consecutive year, the BIG EAST will send multiple teams to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship as conference champion Georgetown is joined in the field of 64 by league runner-up Butler. The Bulldogs earn their first at-large selection and the program’s second berth overall, while the Hoyas advance to the national tournament for the sixth consecutive year and eighth time overall.
Georgetown (14-3-3) will travel to Wake Forest (at-large, ACC) in first-round action, with the winner earning a date with either No. 3 seed Penn State (automatic, Big Ten) or Stony Brook (automatic, America East). Butler (13-2-5) will visit Northwestern (at-large, Big Ten) in its first-round tilt, with the winner advancing to face either San Diego State (automatic, Mountain West) or No. 2 seed UCLA (at-large, Pac-12).
Thirty-one conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2017 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 Nov. 10, 11 and 12 at campus sites. Second-round games will be played Friday, Nov. 17 at campus sites and third-round games will be played Sunday, Nov. 19 at the same campus sites. Quarterfinal games will be played Nov. 24 or 25 also on campus sites.
Georgetown won its second consecutive BIG EAST Championship on Sunday, marking the first time the Hoyas claimed both the regular season and postseason titles in the same season. GU dealt Butler just its second loss of the season and became the first team to score multiple goals against the stingy Bulldog defense.
Butler earned its first NCAA Championship berth in 2015 after winning the BIG EAST Championship, and will aim for its first NCAA Tournament win. Georgetown is one year removed from a trip to the College Cup and is 7-6-3 all-time in the national postseason. With a .531 NCAA winning percentage, the Hoyas are one of just three teams in this year’s field not from an autonomous five conference to have a .500-or-better winning percentage in the national postseason, along with Santa Clara (.671) and Pepperdine (.500).