Blue Jays To Face Dubuque In Opening Round
The Westminster College men's soccer team will face the University of Dubuque in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship. This is the fourth consecutive trip to the championship for the Blue Jays who will take the field on Saturday, November 12th at 5 p.m. against the Spartans.
Westminster earned the automatic bid from the SLIAC by winning the conference tournament, 3-2 over Spalding University. Westminster brings a 15-3-1 overall record into the game. They are led by Drake Trease, who has tallied 14 goals and five assists this season with four game-winning goals. David Immanuel is second on the team with nine goals and three assists. The Blue Jays are averaging 2.94 goals per game and have won seven straight games.
Dubuque is 13-5 overall and picked up a Pool C, at-large, berth into the tournament. The Spartans are averaging 2.5 goals per game this season with Gonzalo Hernandez leading the team with 46 points on 19 goals and eight assists.
Saturday's game between Westminster and Dubque will be hosted by the University of Chicago, who are ranked #1 and earned a bye in the tournament's first-round.
Forty-two conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the championship. One team was selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions, as well as members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 19 berths were reserved for Pool C, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that did not win their conference championship, and any remaining Pool B teams.
Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites November 18 and 19 or 19 and 20. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the national semifinals, which take place December 2 at Kerr Stadium in Salem, Virginia, with Roanoke College, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem serving as co-hosts. The national championship game will be played December 3.
