The NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Tournament brackets were finalized Monday and Fort Lewis College’s special season will go on.
In what was no surprise, the Skyhawks (12-5-3) were awarded an at-large berth into the field of 48 teams. As the No. 4 seed in the region, Fort Lewis will take on the No. 5 seeded Hilltoppers from St. Edward’s University (13-5) in a first round match scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday in San Angelo, Texas.
The region’s top seed, Angelo State University, will host the regional action.
The last time the Skyhawks played their way into the NCAA Tournament was in 2013 and they owe St. Edward’s some payback for what happened two years ago. FLC lost the opening round matchup that year, 1-0 in overtime, to the Hilltoppers.
“St. Edward’s is a good team and they like to play soccer similar to the way we play so it should be a good matchup,” said Skyhawks’ head coach Jimmy Hall in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I think we’re playing really good soccer right now and I’m confident. We’re in a good mental place and we’re happy with the way the brackets turned out.”
The winner of Friday’s match will go on to play Angelo State. Fort Lewis lost 2-0 to the regional host Rams team on Sept. 10. The Skyhawks also played the No. 2 seed in the region, Dallas Baptist, earlier this season. FLC won the Sept. 12 matchup with the Patriots 2-1 and the match was played when Dallas Baptist (13-3-3) was ranked No. 9 in the nation.
Fort Lewis heads into the tournament coming off a tough loss in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Final to Colorado School of Mines.
Though the Orediggers (14-4-2) came away with the regular season conference title and the RMAC Tournament championship, Fort Lewis was awarded a No. 4 seed while the Orediggers are No. 6.
Colorado Mines’ first round match with No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Commerce (13-5-2) is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday. If the Skyhawks and the Orediggers win their first two matches, they’ll meet for the third time this season.
FLC won a 2-1 match in Golden for the first time in school history on Oct. 9. Mines got the better of the Skyhawks in Sunday’s RMAC Tournament with a 1-0 win.
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