The NCAA women’s soccer tournament bracket is out, and the Georgetown women’s soccer team (14-3-3, Big East) didn’t have the resume to host its first round matchup. The Hoyas will travel to Wake Forest (11-5-3, ACC) for their first round matchup.
For the second year in a row, Georgetown is drawn in a quarter with the No. 1 overall seed, Stanford (18-1, PAC-12). A collision course with the Cardinal would have to wait for the Elite Eight as the more immediate seeded threats to Georgetown are No. 2-seed West Virginia (15-3-2, Big XII) and No. 3-seed Penn State (12-4-4, Big 10). The Nittany Lions enter the tournament after a come from behind 2-1 win in the Big 10 Championship, while the Mountaineers fell at the semifinal hurdle in their conference tournament. Florida State (11-6-1 ACC) earned the four-seed in the region despite falling in the quarterfinals of its conference tournament.
Georgetown’s road to Orlando will be significantly more difficult than last year’s journey. In 2016, the Hoyas played all of their tournament matches at Shaw Field. This year, barring an unlikely series of upsets, they will have to travel for each round to advance to the College Cup again.
The Hoyas have already played the top two seeds in its region, falling 1-0 to then-No. 1 West Virginia in the season opener before suffering their worst loss of the year in Palo Alto, losing 4-0 to then-No. 5 Stanford on September 1. The team also drew with then-No. 14 Rutgers (12-2-5, Big 10), a potential Sweet 16 opponent.
Butler (13-2-5, Big East) is the only Big East team to earn an at large bid. The Bulldogs travel to Northwestern (12-7-2, Big 10) to face the Big 10 runner-up in No. 1-seed North Carolina’s (15-2-2 ACC) region, along with No. 2-seed UCLA (15-2-2 PAC-12), No. 3-seed Virginia (11-5-4 ACC), and No. 4-seed Princeton (14-2 Ivy).
The Hoyas and Demon Deacons will play their first round matchup on Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET.
