Official NCAA Announcement
NCAA Championship Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference is sending two programs to the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Championship following the reveal of Monday night’s selection show.
A total of 56 teams from eight regions across the country were selected by the national committee with the first round coming up quick on Thursday, Nov. 18. From the Midwest Region, programs from the Great Midwest, Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference (GLIAC) were eligible for either AQ’s or at-large selections.
The three automatic qualifiers from the Midwest Region were all placed in the final set of regional rankings and that included Ferris State (GLIAC) and Drury (GLVC), who each won their respective league tournaments on Sunday.
Start times in the Midwest Region have been set at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on Thursday for the four first-round contests at two different host sites.
Great Midwest tournament and regular season champion Ashland (15-1-3 overall) earned the automatic qualifying bid after winning the title on Saturday and the Eagles will go into the bracket as the No. 2 seed.
Ashland was also granted the bid to host at Ferguson Field for the preliminary rounds and will matchup against GLVC champion and No. 7 seed Drury on Thursday. The winner would face No. 3 Ferris State or No. 6 Saginaw Valley State, both from the GLIAC.
In the other half of the bracket, Cedarville (12-5-2 overall) received an at-large selection as the No. 8 seed in the regional. The Yellow Jackets pushed Ashland into overtime on Saturday in the conference championship matchup and will be traveling to Allendale, Mich., to face No. 1 seed Grand Valley State (GLIAC).
Great Midwest Coach of the Year Jonathan Meade is taking his program to the national tournament for the first time since the 2016 season (Cedarville also qualified in 2015) and Ashland head coach Cayleb Paulino is in the bracket for the Eagles’ first year as a conference member.
First round matches will take place Thursday, Nov. 18 or Friday, Nov. 19 and second round matches will take place either Saturday, Nov. 20 or Sunday, Nov. 21. All games will be played on the campus of a participating institution and will consist of two sites per region. The two finalists in each subregion (Midwest will also host) will advance to third and quarterfinal-round competition to be played Thursday, Dec. 2 or Friday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec. 4 or Sunday, Dec. 5. The semifinals and championship games will take place Dec. 9 and 11 at Switchbacks FC Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado hosted by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and Colorado Springs Sport Corp.