Official Great Midwest Championship Page
Championship Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – Eight teams are in contention for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship when the postseason starts this weekend with quarterfinal action on four different host sites.
Quarterfinal matches will be completed Saturday, October 27, with No. 8 Ursuline at No. 1 Ohio Valley, No. 7 Davis & Elkins at No. 2 Trevecca, No. 6 Cedarville at No. 3 Walsh and No. 5 Ohio Dominican at No. 4 Findlay.
Playoff rounds of the Great Midwest Championship will be streamed by the host institutions on the Great Midwest Digital Network.
Allocations from the Midwest Region have increased up to eight teams for the NCAA Championship bracket this year. The league receives an automatic qualifier bid and between the Great Midwest, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), five more at-large selections will be made by the national committee.
Unlike the men’s bracket, all teams will compete in the opening round. The top seed remaining from the quarterfinal round will then host the semifinals and championship game.
Presumably on paper, Ohio Valley would be in the driver’s seat to host the final two rounds of the postseason after winning the regular-season conference title for the second straight year. Of course, Ursuline, would love to throw a wrench into the Fighting Scots’ plans in the No. 8/1 matchup.
The Fighting Scots have lost just one game in the past two seasons of conference play, compiling a ridiculous 24-1-2 record after laboring through a 1-15-1 season in just 2016.
Regionally ranked, Ohio Valley is ready to take that next step and make the NCAA tournament for back-to-back seasons. Paula Valbuena and Fernanda Araya are a potent offensive tandem and last year’s freshman of the year, Konstantina Giannou, is just as dangerous.
History has shown it is tough to repeat – Ohio Dominican played Ohio Valley to a gripping shootout last year – and seven other teams would like to dethrone the defending champs.
Trevecca has nine shutouts and is a unit that is extremely tough to score on. Walsh is red hot entering the postseason as winners in nine of its last 10. Findlay is crashing the postseason for the first time as a member of the league after just missing a season ago.
Ohio Dominican has that championship game experience (along a national tournament win for good measure) and knows what it takes to survive and advance in the postseason. Cedarville has never been a stranger to the playoffs and has won three of its last four.
Credit Davis & Elkins for going through a coaching change and getting back to the postseason under Doris Sullivan after the Senators missed last year. Ursuline has a tall task ahead, but a pair of double-digit scorers with Dominique Buddenhagen and Odessa Strizzi up top will put pressure on the OVU defense.