Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced the 40-team field for the 43rd annual NAIA Women's Soccer National Tournament. Twenty-five teams earned their place in the national championship through automatic qualification from their respective conferences, while the remaining 15 teams were selected by the NAIA Women's Soccer National Selection Committee, comprised of NAIA administrators from around the nation. The Marian Women's Soccer team will host the NAIA National Tournament Opening Rounds for the sixth consecutive season, coming in as the fourth-seed.
The First and Second Rounds will take place on Thursday, Nov. 19 and Saturday, Nov. 21st at campus sites around the nation; the winners from each site will then advance to the final site in Decatur, Ala.. The remainder of the tournament will begin on November 30th with the round of 16 match-ups and end on December 7th with the NAIA National Championship match.
Marian will host Concordia (Neb.) and Rio Grande in the First and Second Rounds. The First Round match up between Concordia (Neb.) and Rio Grande will take place on Thursday, Nov. 19th at Ascension St. Vincent Field. The winning team will advance to the Second Round to take on the fourth-seeded Marian Knights on Saturday, November 21st at 4 PM at Ascension St. Vincent Field. The winner of the Second Round match will advance to the National Tournament Final Site in Decatur, Alabama.
The fourth-seeded Knights currently hold an overall record of 13-3-3 and a record of 5-2-2 in the Crossroads League, making it to the CLT Championship as the fifth seed, falling to the third-seeded Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats 1-0 in the Championship match on Tuesday.
Concordia (Neb.) finished as the regular season runner-up in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, posting an overall record of 10-4-3 and a conference record of 9-1-1. The second team coming to Indianapolis is Rio Grande out of Ohio. The Red Storm was the River States Conference Tournament Champions rolling 3-2 past WVU Tech last Wednesday in overtime. Rio Grande currently holds an overall record of 16-0-1 and a conference record of 9-0-1.
Stay tuned on muknights.com next week for more info on the Indianapolis First and Second Round match ups. All games will be streamed free of charge on NAIANetwork.com.
Full Indianapolis Schedule
Indianapolis Bracket First Round
Concordia (Neb.) vs. Rio Grande (Ohio) (Thursday, November 19th, TBD, Ascension St. Vincent Field)
Indianapolis Bracket Second Round
#4 Marian vs. Concordia/Rio Grande (Saturday, November 21st, 4PM, Ascension St. Vincent Field)
