2012 NCAA DIII Women's Soccer Bracket
ITHACA'S INVITATION: The Ithaca College women's soccer team (17-1-2) has been selected for the NCAA playoffs. The Bombers received the Empire 8's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will play host to a four-team regional on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10-11. Ithaca takes on UMass Boston (18-2-0) in a regional semifinal match Saturday at 11 a.m., while Bowdoin (11-3-3) will face Scranton (9-7-4) at 1:30 p.m. The regional final will be played Sunday at 1:30 p.m. between the winners of the two first-round matches.
TICKETS: Tickets will be available for purchase at the site of competition: $6 general, $3 students, $3 senior citizens, $2 children under 12.
SERIES RESULTS: The Bombers have never faced UMass Boston. Ithaca played Bowdoin in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament and posted a 2-0 shutout over the Polar Bears. The Bombers have faced Scranton 17 times, posting a 12-3-2 record, including a 3-2 double overtime victory over the Royals on Sept. 8.
ITHACA VS. 2012 NCAA PLAYOFF FIELD: The Bombers faced five NCAA playoff teams this fall, going 4-1-0. Ithaca beat Scranton 3-2 in double overtime, defeated Cortland 1-0, blanked Misericordia 1-0 and posted a 3-0 victory over Farmingdale. Ithaca dropped their regular-season finale to Rochester Institute of Technology 1-0.
ITHACA IN THE NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Bombers are making their 23rd appearance, and 10th straight, in the NCAA playoffs. No school has made more; William Smith is also making its 23rd appearance. The last 16 playoff bids have come under the direction of head coach
Mindy Quigg. Ithaca is 34-17-5 in NCAA playoff competition, two of the five ties resulted in the Bombers advancing on penalty kicks – in the other three, Ithaca was eliminated in penalty kicks. The program's four straight trips to the NCAA semifinals from 1988 through 1991 were highlighted by consecutive national titles in 1990 and 1991. In 2011, Ithaca reached the final four for the sixth time in program history. Ithaca fell to Wheaton (Ill.), 2-0.
THE 2012 NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Division III championship provides for a 64-team, single-elimination tournament that includes 43 winners of conferences whose champions earn automatic qualification (including Empire 8 titlist Ithaca, Landmark Conference winner Scranton and Little East champion UMass Boston) and 21 teams from those conferences who did not win their conference title (including Bowdoin, who lost the NESCAC's automatic bid in penalty kicks). Following this weekend's regional round, four schools will host four-team sectionals, to be held Nov. 16-18. The four sectional winners advance to the semifinals and final, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. All games will be played on the campuses of participating institutions until the “final four”, which will be held at Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.
ITHACA LEADERS: The #8/9 Bombers enter the tournament ranked in top 10 in the nation in four categories: fourth with a .917 save percentage, sixth with a .326 goals-against average, seventh with a .722 shutout percentage and eighth with a .917 win-loss-tie percentage. Outscoring opponents 52-6, Ithaca is led by senior
Rachael Palladino (Lansing/Lansing) with 28 points on 13 goals and a pair of assists. Junior
Ellyn Grant-Keane (Lansing/Lansing) and senior
Julie Winn(Sutton, Mass./Sutton) chip in 21 and 18 points, respectively. Grant-Keane and juniors
Amanda Callanan (Ballston Spa/Ballston Spa) and
Jackie Rodabaugh (Mill Hall, Pa./Central Mountain)have six goals each and freshman
Kelsey King (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) adds five.Winn, who set the school record with 27 career assists, has a team-best 10 this season. She has scored four goals. Senior
Becca Salant (Holliston, Mass./Holliston) ranks seventh in the nation with a .906 save percentage and ninth with a 0.37 goals-against average. She has made 67 saves this season.