William and Mary Earns Invitation Into NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament

First Round Will Pit Tribe Against Gamecocks of South Carolina

11/10/08 8:40PM

WILLIAMSBURG - The William and Mary women's soccer team will take the pitch this weekend in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, facing the Gamecocks of South Carolina in a neutral-site match in Durham, North Carolina. This will be the third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships for the Tribe, and 23rd overall, third-most in NCAA history.

The Tribe enters the national tournament at 14-6-1, and hosted the Colonial Athletic Association Championships for the first time ever last weekend. Despite falling in the semifinal round, 3-2 to eventual runners-up Hofstra, W&M had a successful season, winning the CAA regular-season crown and accompanying top-seed in the league tournament for an unprecedented third-straight year. In total, the Tribe faced six teams that made the NCAA field of 64, and recorded wins over Brigham Young (4-1) and Northeastern (3-2) while also tying against Washington State (0-0).

South Carolina is 11-6-4 on the year, and earned the No.-5 seed in the SEC tournament, bowing in the quarterfinals to Georgia, 2-1. The second-best rated team in the Southeastern Conference in the latest RPI released November 4 at No. 32, the Gamecocks are making their third NCAA Tournament appearance, and second in a row. The only common opponent this season has been UNC Wilmington, who tied South Carolina 0-0 on August 23rd, and lost to W&M, 3-2 on September 26.

The winner of the match Friday will face the winner of national 9-12 seed Duke and Radford, the winner of the Big South. The Tribe and Duke have met 10 times before, with W&M holding a 5-4-1 advantage, and once in the NCAA Tournament, a 3-0 win for the Tribe in 1999 in Newport News, Virginia. Most recently, the two teams tied 1-1 in the second match of 2005 season when Duke was ranked in the national top-10. W&M holds a 6-4-1 advantage all-time over Radford, but the teams haven't met since the first match of the 1996 season, a 6-1 Tribe victory.