DENVER – With the bracket expanding to six teams this season, the bracket for the 2014 WAC Women’s Soccer Tournament has been finalized. The tournament will begin on Thursday afternoon at Championship Field in Seattle.
Host Seattle U earns the top seed after winning a tiebreaker over Missouri-Kansas City following a tie for the top spot in the conference table. The Redhawks will look to defend their conference tournament title on their home pitch after going 8-1-1 in conference play this season.
Missouri-Kansas City earns the second seed after using a win over Chicago State on Sunday afternoon to clinch a share of the WAC regular season title. The Kangaroos also went 8-1-1 in WAC play this season, including a perfect 5-0-0 at home.
The third seed goes to Utah Valley. The Wolverines finished the regular season with 21 points after going 7-3-0 in the WAC this season. UVU was 4-1-0 on the road in conference play, though their lone loss came at the site of the tournament in a 2-1 loss to Seattle U on Sep. 28.
Bakersfield earns the fourth seed after going 3-7-0 in conference play while New Mexico State and Texas-Pan American earned the fifth and sixth seeds respectively.
The first game of the tournament will match Bakersfield and New Mexico State, beginning at 4:30 p.m. local time. The winner of that match will face host Seattle U on Friday at 4:30 p.m., who was given the option of what time slot to play their first game, resulting in a change to the initial bracket.
The second game of Thursday’s first round will kick at 7:30 p.m. and feature Utah Valley and Texas-Pan American. The winner of that match will face Missouri-Kansas City, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Friday’s semifinal winners will meet on Sunday afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m., for the WAC’s automatic qualifier to the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament.
Thursday, Nov. 6
Match #1 – No. 4 Bakersfield vs. No. 5 New Mexico State, 4:30 p.m.
Match #2 – No. 3 Utah Valley vs. No. 6 Texas-Pan American, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 7
Match #3 – No. 1 Seattle U vs. Match 1 Winner, 4:30 p.m.
Match #4 – No. 2 Missouri-Kansas City vs. Match 2 Winner, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 9
Match #5 – Match 3 Winner vs. Match 4 Winner, 1 p.m.