Nov. 10, 2008

NCAA Tournament Bracket

Wake Forest in the NCAA Tournament

WINSTON-SALEM N.C. - No. 18 Wake Forest was selected as one of 16 host sites for the first two rounds of the 2008 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. Wake Forest, which earned a three seed in the Stanford region, opens play on Friday, November 14, against Morehead State at Spry Stadium. Game times will be announced on Tuesday.

"One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to be a host site for the NCAA Tournament," head coach Tony da Luz said. "Our players earned it. They did a good job down the stretch of winning some critical games."

Georgia and James Madison will meet in the other first round match on Friday. The winners of Friday's games will meet in the second round on Sunday, November 16.

"We can't overlook any of the team's in our regional," da Luz said. "I'm not very familiar with Morehead State. I know Georgia head coach Patrick Baker has been through the NCAA's at Florida State. He always has a well prepared team. I saw James Madison play earlier this year against Virginia Tech and they are a really dangerous team."

The Deacons will be appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the 13th consecutive year. Wake Forest has an all-time record of 5-10-1 in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Deacs advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, defeating Boston University 2-1 in the first round, before falling 1-0 to Connecticut in the second round.

Wake Forest was selected as a host site for the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history. The Deacons last hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in 2006.

Wake Forest finished the regular season with a 12-7 record and a 5-5 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The Demon Deacons closed the regular season winning three of their last four games, including a pair of road victories over Virginia Tech and then-No. 8 Virginia. Wake Forest dropped a hard-fought 3-2 double overtime decision to Virginia in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

A member of the Ohio Valley Conference, Morehead State earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by winning its conference tournament. The Eagles, 9-8-3 overall and 4-2-2 in OVC play, defeated UT Martin 1-0 in the conference championship match.

Morehead State is led by Jillian Birchmeier, who has scored nine goals on the season and has 21 points overall. Devan Jordan leads the team with five assists on the year.

Lilly Meisner has played in 16 games this season, allowing 13 goals on the year and posting a 0.90 goals against average. Meisner has six shutouts on the year.

Wake Forest and Morehead State are meeting for the first time in series history. The meeting will also mark Wake's first game against a school from the OVC.

Ticket information, along with game times, for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be posted as soon as they are available on wakeforestsports.com.