NCAA women's tourney

UNC, Notre Dame, SCU, Texas are top seeds among 64 teams.

Michele Weissenhofer's flip throw is one of Notre Dame's many offensive weapons. -- University of Notre Dame photo --

INDIANAPOLIS (Monday, November 6, 2006) -- Notre Dame, North Carolina, Santa Clara and Texas are the four top seeds in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship which announced its 64-school field tonight.

For the second straight year, the NCAA did not determine overall seeds for the tournament, choosing instead only to seed the top four teams in each of four 16-school regional brackets.

The four No. 2 seeds are UCLA, Florida State, Penn State and Texas A&M, The four third seeds area Wake Forest, Rutgers, Illinois and Florida. The No. 4 seeds are Utah, Oklahoma State, Colorado and Tennessee.

Thirty conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2006 championship with the remaining 34 teams selected at-large.

The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives are:

America East - Hartford
Atlantic 10 - Saint Louis
Atlantic Coast - North Carolina
Atlantic Sun - Jacksonville
Big 12 - Texas
Big East - Notre Dame
Big Sky - Idaho State
Big South - North Carolina-Asheville
Big Ten - Penn State
Big West - California State-Fullerton
Colonial - Old Dominion
Conference USA - Alabama at Birmingham
Horizon League - Loyola-Chicago
Ivy - Columbia
Metro Atlantic - Niagara
Mid-American - Toledo
Mid-Continent - Oakland
Missouri Valley - Drake University
Mountain West - Nevada-Las Vegas
Northeast - Long Island
Ohio Valley - Southeast Missouri State
Pac-10 - UCLA
Patriot - Navy
Southeastern - Kentucky
Southern - North Carolina-Greensboro
Southland - McNeese State
Southwestern - Grambling State
Sun Belt - Denver
West Coast - Santa Clara
Western Athletic - Nevada

North Carolina and Connecticut are the only two schools to be invited to the tournament every year since its inception in 1982.

The Atlantic Coast and Big East lead all conferences with seven teams apiece in the tournament. Five teams will represent the Southeastern Conference, four teams each come from the Big 12, the Big Ten and the Pac-10; and three teams will represent Conference USA, the Mountain West and the West Coast Conference.

Teams from the same conference cannot play in the opening round.

Ten teams will make their first appearance in the tournament: Columbia, Drake, Grambling State, Louisville, McNeese State, Nevada, Niagara, Old Dominion, Southeast Missouri State and Toledo.

UNC has captured the NCAA title 17 times. In the 2005 championship game, Portland defeated UCLA 4-0 with "Most Outstanding Offensive Player" Christine Sinclair netting two goals for the Pilots second national title.

First-round matches will be played Friday and second-round games Sunday, except for the two first-round games at Utah, which will be played Thursday with the winners meeting Saturday.

Third-round games will be played November 17, 18 or 19 with the quarterfinal matches played November 24, 25 or 26.

The Women's College Cup will be played December 1 and 3 at SAS Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

North Carolina will host the North Carolina-Asheville Friday. Notre Dame will open with Oakland at home. Texas will travel to Storrs, Conn., for its opening match against Long Island. Santa Clara will host Southern California.

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