NCAA men: Duke, ACC dominate seeds in field of 48.

Duke, ACC dominate seeds in field of 48.

Mike Grella

For the second straight year, Mike Grella scored the goal that dvae Duke the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Duke is the No. 1 seed in the 2006 NCAA tournament.
-- Duke Photograhy --
INDIANAPOLIS (Monday, November 6, 2006)-- Duke, which yesterday won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship, is the top seed in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship, it was announced today

Duke leads a field of 48 vying to advance to the final four, the NCAA Men's College Cup December 1 and 3 in Saint Louis University's Robert R. Hermann Stadium.

Wake Forest, which fell 1-0 to Duke in overtime in the ACC final, is the second seed, followed by Southern Methodist and Virginia, the third ACC team in the top four.

Sixteen schools received seeds and thus first-round byes. The remaining seeds are (5) Maryland, another ACC school (6) West Virginia (7) Indiana (8) UCLA (9) Clemson (10) Santa Clara (11) Saint Louis (12) Notre Dame (13) California (14) North Carolina, a fifth ACC team (15) Towson; and (16) Lehigh.

Twenty-two conferences were awarded automatic bids with 26 teams selected at-large.

The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives are:

America East - Binghamton
Atlantic Coast - Duke
Atlantic 10 - Rhode Island
Atlantic Soccer - Adelphi
Atlantic Sun - Gardner-Webb
Big East - St. John's
Big South - Winthrop
Big Ten - Indiana
Big West - California-Santa Barbara
Colonial Athletic - Hofstra
Conference USA - Southern Methodist
Horizon - Loyola-Chicago
Ivy - Harvard
Metro Atlantic Athletic - Fairfield
Mid-American - Northern Illinois
Mid-Continent - Western Illinois
Missouri Valley - Creighton
Mountain Pacific Sports - New Mexico
Northeast - Monmouth
Patriot - Bucknell
Southern - North Carolina-Greensboro
West Coast - Santa Clara

Four teams will appear in the national tournament for the first time: Fairfield, Gardner-Webb, Loyola-Chicago and Monmouth.

The ACC and the Big East led all conferences with seven teams apiece, while the Colonial Athletic Association has four.

Maryland is the defending champions after a 1-0 triumph over New Mexico last December at the SAS Park in Carey, N.C.

All first-round games will be played either November 10 or 11 with second-round action set for November 15.

First- and second-round sites and match-ups:

Providence, R.I.
First round: Adelphi at Brown
Second round: Winner at Duke

New Brunswick, N.J.
First round: Rhode Island at Rutgers
Second round: Winner at Lehigh

Birmingham, Ala.
First round: Gardner-Webb at Alabama at Birmongham
Second round: Winner at Clemson

Boston
First round: Binghamton at Harvard Second round: Winner at UCLA

Queens, N.Y.
First round: Monmouth at St. John's
Second round: Winner at Maryland

Chicago
First round: Western Illinois at Illinois-Chicago
Second round: Winner at Notre Dame

San Francisco
First round: New Mexico at San Francisco
Second round: Winner at California

Fairfax, Va.
First round: Bucknell at George Mason
Second round: Winner at Virginia

Santa Barbara, Calif.
First round: San Diego State at California-Santa Barbara
Second round: Winner at Southern Methodist

Norfolk, Va.
First round: Winthrop at Old Dominion
Second round: Winner at North Carolina

Evanston, Ill.
First round: Cincinnati at Northwestern
Second round: Winner at Saint Louis

Greensboro, N.C.
First round: Virginia Tech at North Carolina-Greensboro
Second round: Winner at West Virginia

De Kalb, Ill.
First round: Loyola-Chicago at Northern Illinois
Second round: Winner at Indiana

Seattle
First round: Creighton at Washington
Second round: Winner at Santa Clara

Storrs, Conn.
First round: Fairfield at Connecticut
Second round: Winner at Towson

Hempstead, N.Y.
First round: Providence at Hofstra
Second round: Winner at Wake Forest

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