The 24th-ranked Emory University Women's Soccer team was selected to the NCAA Division III Championships, and will be headed to Crestview Hills, Kentucky for the first two rounds of tournament play on Saturday, November 15th and Sunday, November 16th.
Emory's opening round opponent will be Kenyon College, which finished the season with a 12-7-1 record and earned entry to the NCAA Championship after winning the North Coast Athletic Conference's automatic bid. On the other side of the draw, host and 10th-ranked Thomas More College will face Maryville College (Tenn.), with the winning teams from each match on Saturday playing in the second round on Sunday.
Emory was unbeaten in its final seven matches of the campaign, finishing the year with a record of 11-1-6. The Eagles were the lone one-loss team in the University Athletic Association (UAA), finishing fourth in the standings with a 2-1-4 conference ledger. Emory's defense, which entered the final week of the season ranked 14th in Division III in goals-against average, shutout its last five opponents to lower its team GAA to 0.41 in 2014.
The Eagles received one of the 20 at-large bids to the NCAA Championship field, awarded to teams who did not win an automatic bid via their conference.
The Eagles will be making their program record fifth-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships, surpassing the previous program-best streak of four-straight appearances from 1995-98. Emory's senior class becomes just the third in school history to qualify for the NCAA Tournament all four years of their careers.
It was the 16th NCAA Championship bid overall for the Eagles, and the eighth in 10 years under Head Coach Sue Patberg. Emory has finished as high as second at the NCAA Championships, coming during the 2012 NCAA Championships when the team entered the tournament with an 11-1-6 record, identical to its mark this campaign. Last season, the Eagles reached the round of 16 of the NCAA Championships before falling 1-0 in double-overtime to Wheaton College (Ill.).
Emory is 16-13-5 all-time in NCAA Championship games, including a 13-7-2 mark under Patberg's leadership.
Check back at EmoryAthletics.com later in the week for more details on the event, including game times and ticket information.
Women’s Soccer Receives Fifth-Straight NCAA Tournament Bid
Posted: Nov 10, 2014