Cavalier Women's Soccer Selected For NCAA Tournament
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Nov. 11, 2002
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia women’s soccer team was selected to play in the 2002 NCAA Tournament Monday afternoon. The team will take on Dayton in Morgantown, W. Va. on Friday, November 15 in first round action. If they win Friday, they would play the winner of West Virginia and Loyola (Md.) on Sunday, also on the West Virginia campus.
The Cavaliers will be making their ninth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 15th appearance overall. Last season, Virginia advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to eventual National Champion Santa Clara.
“It is always exciting it get into the tournament,” stated Virginia head coach Steve Swanson. “It is a whole new season and we are going to approach it one game at a time. We have played a lot of tough teams on the road and hopefully that has prepared us for the tournament.”
The 2002 Cavaliers have a 11-6-2 record, finish tied for second in the ACC with a 4-3 conference mark. Virginia has been led this year by All-ACC honorees Kelly Worden (Spring, Texas), Gillian Hatch (Whitefish Bay, Wisc.), and Darci Borski (Philadelphia, Pa.).
The Dayton Flyers were the regular season runners-up in the Atlantic 10. They boast a 17-3-0 regular season record after reaching the semifinals of the A-10 tournament. The Loyola Greyhounds are the champions of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They sport a 12-5-2 record entering their first round game. The Mountaineers of West Virginia are the No. 5 seed in the entire field after a 17-2-1 regular season. West Virginia advanced to the final of the Big East Tournament. The Cavaliers and Mountaineers have met once before this season with West Virginia winning 2-1 at Kl?ckner Stadium on September 13.
The 64-team field includes 29 automatic qualifiers who won the conference title and 35 at-large entries. The event starts with first round play on Friday and concludes with the national championship contest December 8 in Austin, Texas.
NCAA First and Second Rounds
Morgantown, W.Va.
First Round
Virginia (11-6-2) vs. Dayton (17-3-0) 4:00 p.m.
West Virginia (17-2-1) vs. Loyola (Md.) (12-5-2) 7:00 p.m.
Second Round
First Round Winners 1:00 p.m.