Loyola, UIC earn spots as NCAA announces 48-team field for men's soccer tournament
Nov. 6, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS -- For the first time in five years, two Horizon League teams will take part in the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship, as Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are both part of the 48-team field announced Monday (Nov. 6).
UIC opens the national summit at home Friday evening (Nov. 10), hosting Western Illinois University at 7 p.m. (Central time / 8 p.m. Eastern), while Loyola travels west to DeKalb, Ill., where the Ramblerrs will meet local rival and former Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League member Northern Illinois University on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 11). That contest is scheduled for 1 p.m. Central time (2 p.m. Eastern) at NIU's Huskie Soccer Field.
Loyola will make its first-ever appearance in the national summit, earning the League's automatic entry by winning the League Championship on Sunday (Nov. 5). The Ramblers' 1-0 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay gives Loyola an 11-7-2 record for the season, the school's best showing since posting the same record in 1996. LU tied for third place in the loop standings during the regular season (4-2-1) before racing to the League Championship title.
Northern Illinois is in the national tournament for the first time since 1973 after winning the Mid-American Conference championship. The Huskies defeated perennial MAC power University of Akron 1-0 on Sunday to improve to 14-5-1 overall and remain perfect (8-0-0) at home in 2006.
Loyola enior goalkeeper Sean Bond has nine shutouts this year and ranks 23rd in the nation with a 0.76 goals-against average. Michael Ferguson and Alex Jones pace the Rambler attack. The two freshmen have combined for 11 of the team's 23 goals, while senior Matt Marek leads the team with 15 points (six goals and three assists).
UIC makes its third NCAA appearance and first since 2000. The Flames bring a 12-2-5 record into the national tournament, and rank second in the nation with a 0.35 goals-against average. UIC won the regular-season League championship with a 5-1-1 loop ledger, but was eliminated in a penalty-kick shootout by Loyola in the League championship semifinals last Friday (Nov. 3).
UIC freshman goalkeeper Jovan Bubonja is third in the nation individually with a 0.36 GAA which includes ten solo shutouts. Senior forward Tonci Skroce earned the League's Player of the Year award after posting seven goals and six assists (20 points) this year. Junior midfielder Pavle Dundjer (seven goals) and senior forward Eric Cervantes (six goals) add to the Flames' firepower, while Bubonja has not allowed a goal in the last 373 minutes of action.
Western Illinois won its third consecutive Mid-Continent Conference title and stands at 15-7-0 on the year. That record includes five consecutive victories plus a 2-0 triumph over League representative University of Detroit Mercy on August 27.
The winner of the UIC-Western Illinois match will advance to face 12th-seeded University of Notre Dame at South Bend, Ind., while the survivor between Loyola and NIU will travel to seventh-seeded Indiana University. Both of those second-round matches are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 15, with the Men's College Cup scheduled for St. Louis. Mo., and Robert Herrmann Stadium. The national semifinals are slated for Dec. 1, with the national champion crowned on Dec. 3.
The last time the Horizon League had two NCAA entries was in 2001 when Butler University won the League Championship and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee drew an at-large berth. That was the first of five consecutive NCAA appearances for the Panthers, who were one of only seven teams to post victories in each of the last four national summits.
###
Comprised of nine public and private institutions of higher learning, the Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 intercollegiate championship sports and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The League and its member institutions aspire to teach young people, through athletic competition, the value of learning, service to others and personal responsibility. NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Pairings (in bracket order) First Round (Friday-Saturday, Nov. 10-11) Second-Round Opponent (Wednesday, Nov. 15):
Adelphi (11-6-1) at Brown (10-4-3) #1 Duke (16-3-1)
Rhode Island (12-5-4) at Rutgers (10-6-2) #16 Lehigh (15-1-2)
Gardner-Webb (9-7-3) at Alabama-Birmingham (10-6-3) #9 Clemson (12-4-2)
Binghamton (9-6-5) at Harvard (13-4-0) #8 UCLA (10-5-4)
Monmouth (14-3-3) at St. John's (13-5-2) #5 Maryland (15-4-1)
Western Illinois (15-7-0) at UIC (12-2-5) #12 Notre Dame (13-5-2)
New Mexico (13-3-3) at San Francisco (12-6-1) #13 California (12-5-1)
Bucknell (8-7-6) at George Mason (12-5-3) #4 Virginia (14-3-1)
UC Santa Barbara (12-7-0) at San Diego State (9-5-4) #3 Southern Methodist (17-1-4)
Winthrop (15-3-3) at Old Dominion (13-5-1) #14 North Carolina (11-5-3)
Northwestern (11-7-0) at Cincinnati (11-5-2) #11 Saint Louis (13-4-2)
Virginia Tech (11-7-1) at UNC Greensboro (14-7-0) #6 West Virginia (15-2-3)
Loyola (11-7-2) at Northern Illinois (14-5-1) #7 Indiana (14-4-2)
Creighton (13-4-3) at Washington (12-6-1) #10 Santa Clara (12-4-4)
Fairfield (14-5-1) at Connecticut (10-8-2) #15 Towson (14-1-3)
Providence (13-6-0) at Hofstra (11-5-3) #2 Wake Forest (15-3-3)
