Lady Choctaws Enter NCAA Tournament as South Region #1 Seed
For the first time in school history, the Mississippi College women’s soccer team will participate in the NCAA Tournament, entering as the #1 seed from the South Region, it was announced on Monday (November 6).
The Lady Choctaws (15-3-1) will head to Florence, Ala. where they will face the winner of #4 North Alabama and #5 West Florida on Sunday I(Nov. 12) at 1:00 p.m. UNA and UWF play on Friday (Nov. 10) at 2:00 p.m. to see who will advance to play MC.
“I’m extremely excited for the girls, the coaching staff and this program,” said 20th-year head coach Darryl Longabaugh. “These young ladies have worked so hard and pushed through adversity. They deserve this chance to play for a national title. We are honored to represent Mississippi College on the national stage.”
MC is coming off a second consecutive trip to the Gulf South Conference championship match, dropping the final to Lee University by a score of 1-0. The Lady Choctaws were the #2 seed in the tournament and grabbed wins over West Alabama (5-1) and West Florida (2-0) to move on to the title match.
The Lady Choctaws picked up a pair of wins over UWF this season, while North Alabama beat MC in Florence by a score of 3-1 in October.
#3 Lee joins MC, UNA and UWF as four of the six teams in the South Regional, marking the first time in GSC history that four teams have advanced to a single postseason. #2 Nova Southeastern and #6 Florida Tech of the Sunshine State Conference round out the six-team South Region. Lee, NSU and FIT will play a separate sub-regional at Nova.
The winners of each sub-regional will advance to the “Sweet 16” (Nov. 17) where the winner will face the Southeast Region champion (Nov. 19) with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The national semifinals are scheduled for November 30th with the national title match scheduled for December 2nd in Kansas City, Missouri.
