2017 Great Midwest Women's Soccer Championship Page
2017 Women's Championship Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – Highlighted with regular season champion Ohio Valley, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship bracket was released with eight teams in the field.
At stake is the conference tournament title and the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional as four quarterfinal contests are set for Saturday.
The final day of the regular season produced results that officially clinched postseason bids for Kentucky Wesleyan and Lake Erie. Six of the eight seeds and all four quarterfinal host destinations were known before Tuesday.
Ohio Valley, bumped up to No. 22 in the United Soccer Coaches National Poll, finished a remarkable campaign after getting picked by the coaches to finish last in the preseason poll. The Fighting Scots are also No. 3 in the second edition of the NCAA Midwest Region rankings.
Top-seeded Ohio Valley will host along with No. 2 Ohio Dominican, No. 3 Walsh and No. 4 Cedarville.
The first quarterfinal will start at noon ET between No. 1 Ohio Valley and No. 8 Lake Erie. Next up at 2 p.m. ET will be No. 6 Trevecca taking on No. 3 Walsh in North Canton.
At 3 p.m. ET, No. 2 Ohio Dominican will host No. 7 Kentucky Wesleyan and the final game starts at 5 p.m. with No. 4 Cedarville vs. No. 5 Ursuline.
Ohio Valley finished the regular season with an undefeated run of 12-0-1 in the conference schedule, an improbable turnaround from a 2016 season that saw the program end up 1-15-1. The Fighting Scots enter the conference tournament as the undisputed favorite and on a 12-game win streak.
No. 2 Ohio Dominican was in the regular season title hunt up until the end, finishing with an 11-2-1 conference record. The Panthers are ranked seventh going into the conference tournament while boasting leading goal scorer Lauren Bates, who was a 1,000-point scorer on the basketball court prior to joining this year’s team.
Entering the postseason on a four-game win streak like Ohio Dominican is No. 3 Walsh. The Cavaliers have deadly offensive attack with Olivia Peters and Brianna Sanborn, both Great Midwest Players of the Week, leading the way. Walsh started the year on a 10-game win streak.
At 11-6-1, No. 4 Cedarville remains dangerous with Grace Miorelli leading the way with 19 points (7 G, 5 A). Miorelli has quietly moved up to third all-time in conference history in career points with 105. The Yellow Jackets just had a seven-game win streak snapped, but played Ohio Valley as tough as anyone in a 1-0 setback.
No. 5 Ursuline is no stranger to deep conference championship runs and Steph Chlad has been the next in line to the throne of dominant offensive players to come through the program. Chlad has scored 12 goals and assisted on two others as the Arrows finished the regular season at 7-7-1.
Preseason coaches poll favorite Trevecca is the No. 6 seed, identical to the Trojans’ men. All of TNU’s losses have been by exactly one goal; the Trojans could flip that script in the playoffs and be a dangerous team moving forward if they can advance past the quarterfinals. Senior Hannah Barney is a Great Midwest Player of the Week and the program’s all-time leader in career assists.
No. 7 Kentucky Wesleyan and No. 8 Lake Erie both qualified on the final day of the regular season. KWC’s Madisyn Hunt is one of the league’s top scorers with 26 points while the Storm are paced by Carly Kandel and her 17 points on the season.
Depending on institutional scheduling, most game will be available for viewing on the Great Midwest Digital Network this weekend.