ODU will hit road in opener
Monarchs to face Georgetown, one of four No. 3 seeds
Old Dominion’s reward for its third consecutive women’s soccer conference tournament championship was a trip north to face Georgetown in the first round of the 64-team NCAA Division I bracket.
The Monarchs (13-2-5) will take on a team that owns a 12-game unbeaten streak. Georgetown (12-1-7) is the No. 3 seed in its 16-team quadrant of the bracket.
The winner of that match would meet Indiana or No. 6 seed Saint Louis in the second round.
Liberty (16-2-1), which won the league tournament in its first Conference USA season, will travel to Georgia (11-4-5), a No. 4 seed.
Big South champion Radford (12-5-2) will go to Clemson (15-3-3), one of the four No. 1 seeds.
Much of the sting of Sunday’s 2-1 double-overtime loss to ODU in the Sun Belt Tournament final was likely erased for James Madison (9-4-8), which gained an at-large berth. The Dukes will head to South Carolina (11-2-6), a No. 7 seed.
CNU, VWU both to play at home over the weekend
An epic match in last season’s Division III quarterfinals could be headed for an encore in this year’s round of 16 — if No. 1-ranked Christopher Newport and Virginia Wesleyan each win two home games this weekend.
The Captains (16-0-2), who have a 62-game unbeaten streak (including losses in penalty kicks) under coach Jamie Gunderson, will be at home in the NCAAs for the third consecutive season. They will face Atlantic East champion Marymount (7-9-5) on Saturday, and the winner will come back Sunday to face the victor between at-large selection McDaniel (11-3-5) of Maryland and Landmark Conference champion Scranton (13-3-3), which is making its seventh consecutive NCAA showing. Game times are to be announced.
Virginia Wesleyan (16-3-1), meanwhile, will take the momentum of its Old Dominion Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles into a first-round match against Montclair State (13-3-2).
If the Marlins get by that, their next match could be daunting. Barring an upset by Penn State Berks (10-8-2), would take on defending NCAA champion Johns Hopkins (15-22).
In the latest coaches’ poll, released Oct. 31, VWU was ranked 23rd, Montclair State 20th and Johns Hopkins ninth nationally. None of the teams traveling to CNU were in the top 25.
The Marlins should be buoyed by last year’s memories. They went to CNU and, after 110 scoreless minutes, knocked off the 2021 NCAA champion Captains 4-3 in penalty kicks in a quarterfinal before losing their semifinal 3-0 to Case Western Reserve.