2017 Great Midwest Men's Soccer Championship Page
2017 Men's Championship Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Fighting Scots from Ohio Valley will head into the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship as the regular-season champion and top seed in the eight-team bracket.
Four different quarterfinals will be conducted at different sites on Saturday as No. 1 Ohio Valley, No. 2 Davis & Elkins, No. 3 Findlay and No. 4 Alderson Broaddus, will each host respective opponents.
The end of the regular season on Tuesday saw plenty of movement in the conference standings as the playoff field settled. Although the eight teams who clinched were known going into the regular-season finale, the order of finish still left plenty to be determined.
The top seed left standing from the quarterfinal contests will then serve as host for the remaining semifinals and championship game.
The first quarterfinal is set to get underway at 2 p.m. ET with No. 6 Trevecca facing No. 3 Findlay. Thirty minutes later, No. 1 Ohio Valley and No. 8 Walsh will kick off from Vienna, W.Va.
Starting simultaneously at 6 p.m. ET is No. 5 Cedarville vs. No. 4 Alderson Broaddus in a rematch of last year’s championship final and No. 2 Davis & Elkins entertaining a streaking No. 7 Ohio Dominican program.
Ohio Valley is ranked sixth nationally and tops in the NCAA Midwest Region rankings for the second straight week while assembling a 14-1-3 overall record and an 11-0-3 mark in league play.
Davis & Elkins (12-2-2, 11-1-2 G-MAC) was second in the regular-season standings race with 35 points to OVU’s 36. The Senators go into the postseason as winners of four straight and ranked sixth in the NCAA Midwest Region rankings.
League newcomer Findlay (12-5-0, 11-3-0 G-MAC) has four players with 14 points or more, including freshman Josh Hales, who went down with a season-ending injury. The Oilers feature Josh Burton (27 pts), Great Midwest Player of the Week Josh Dickinson (20 pts) and Alex Kerstetter (16 pts) in their offensive attack.
Alderson Broaddus finds itself in a similar position when the Battlers were also the No. 4 seed in last year’s conference tournament and widely viewed as the underdog going in. AB will have the chance to play spoiler once again while trying to make another deep playoff run with an 8-8-2 overall record.
Trevecca and Cedarville each finished with 22 points in the conference standings but the Yellow Jackets earned the tiebreaker by virtue of tying Ohio Valley in the final game of the regular season. TNU’s signature stretch was back-to-back victories against Davis & Elkins and Alderson Broaddus.
No. 7 Ohio Dominican is a dangerous draw as winners of six straight. The Panthers haven’t lost since Sept. 30 and have pitched four shutouts in those six victories. ODU played D&E extremely close in the first meeting between the two teams before the Senators had the upper hand in the latter battle. They will be playing for the third time this year.
Walsh is led by JP Alexis, one of the league’s top offensive playmakers with 10 goals and four assists. The Cavaliers head into the playoffs with a 7-9-1 record with six league victories.
Depending on scheduling at each campus, most games will be streamed live on the Great Midwest Digital Network.