BC Leads Division 1 Women's Field

Eagles Host Central Connecticut State, Harvard and Northeastern in First Two Rounds

November 11, 2008

By Mark Goodman

Boston College leads a field of six New England teams in this year’s NCAA Division 1 women’s soccer pairings, announced Monday night.

First and second round games in the 64-team tournament are scheduled for Friday and Sunday at the Eagles’ home field in Newton, Mass.

Gina DiMartino and the Eagles headline six New England teams in the NCAA women's tournament. (BC Athletics)

BC, seeded third in its regional with a 13-5-2 record, will play Central Connecticut State (12-6-4) in the first round. The Eagles topped CCSU, 1-0, Sept. 14 on a goal by leading scorer Brooke Knowlton.

The winner of that match will face the victor of Friday’s other first round game between Harvard (10-3-4) and Northeastern (13-8-1). The Crimson earned a 2-1 win when the teams met Sept. 17. Harvard’s Erin Wylie and Northeastern’s Liza Rebello scored in the first and second half of regulation, respectively, with Nicole Rhodes netting the game-winner 8:27 into overtime.

Should the home teams in this part of the bracket get through the first two rounds, it would set up a BC-Florida State matchup in the Sweet 16. The Seminoles handed the Eagles their only home loss of the season, 1-0, Oct. 5.

New England’s other two representatives in the tournament both face stiff challenges.

Boston University (15-5-1), coming off a 2-1 win over Stony Brook in Saturday’s America East championship game, heads to Provo, Utah to take on the defending national champion, USC (15-4-1). The ninth-ranked Trojans enter Thursday’s showdown following back-to-back wins over Pac-10 foes Oregon and Oregon State to close out the regular season and finish third in the conference with a 5-3-1 league record.

The winner of the contest will face either host BYU (17-5) or Virginia Tech (10-8-4) in the second round Saturday.

Fairfield, champions of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, head down to Rutgers to take on Oklahoma State, the regional’s No. 4 seed. The Stags enter go into Friday’s match with a 15-4-3 record, while OSU is 17-1-3.

The Fairfield-OSU winner will clash with the host Scarlet Knights (12-6-1) or Penn State (16-7) Sunday.

For the complete NCAA women's soccer bracket, click here.