The 2015 America East women's soccer champion, Albany Great Danes, will travel to face Penn State in the first round of the NCAA women's soccer tournament on Friday, November 13 at 6:30 p.m. in State College, Pa. The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 34th NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, was announced Monday by the Division I Women’s Soccer Committee.
The Great Danes (11-5-1), who are making their first trip to the NCAA tournament, earned the conference's automatic bid after defeating Hartford, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon in the America East championship game. Albany won its first-ever conference title, becoming the fifth different team to hold the America East trophy in the last five seasons.
Albany trailed for 77 minutes in the final against Hartford before scoring twice in the final eight minutes. The Great Danes tied the game in the 82nd minute when Allison Carhart finished a goal off a free kick from Caitlyn Paltsios. Six minutes later, Kelly Kempf scored what proved to be the game-winner on her way to being name the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
The America East has 11 all-time NCAA wins and is 11-25 all-time in NCAA tournament play. In 2011, Boston University became the first America East team to host an NCAA contest since 2000. The league has received multiple bids five times, most recently in 2006. Hartford has twice gone deep into the tournament, winning three games before falling in the quarterfinals in 1999 and reaching the Final Four in 1992. The last tournament win came in 2011 when Boston University defeated Harvard, 3-0.
Penn State (16-3-2) won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles and is the top-seed in the region. America East teams have faced the Nittany Lions twice during NCAA Tournament play. The first matchup came in the 1999 quarterfinals when Hartford fell, 2-0. The last meeting came in the 2004 first round when Binghamton dropped a 6-1 decision in State College.
Thirty-one conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2015 championship, while the remaining 33 teams were selected at-large. The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first- or second-rounds. When pairing teams, the committee follows geographic proximity parameters. The top 16 teams will host and all other sites were selected for the first-round to create the least number of flights.
First-round games will be played at campus sites November 13, 14 and 15. Second-round games will be played Friday, November 20, at campus sites, and third-round games will be played Sunday, November 22, at the same campus sites. Quarterfinal games will be played November 27 or 28 also on campus sites.
The 34th annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played December 4 and December 6 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, with Campbell University and the Town of Cary serving as co-hosts. The first national semifinal will be played and shown live on ESPNU at 5 p.m. Eastern Time Friday, December 4. The second semifinal will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time live on ESPNU. The national championship match will take place at Noon Eastern Time on Sunday, December 6 and will also broadcast live on ESPNU.