College Soccer: Top-Ranked Alabama Leads Way As SEC Soccer Tournament Begins In Pensacola

All the seats had been sold and space for standing room overflowed to the point where no more fans were permitted inside the stadium.

The final home game last Sunday for the Alabama women’s soccer team, which led to clinching the Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Florida, became another surreal moment in the Crimson Tide’s dream season.

Unranked to start the season, Alabama (17-1-1) has created an earthquake in national collegiate soccer with a No. 1 power ranking in the NCAA ratings power index, No. 3 in the coaches poll, a school record 17 wins and 13-game winning streak after the latest win Thursday against Auburn in the Iron Bowl of soccer.

It’s a well-timed placement for the SEC Soccer Tournament, which begins Sunday for the first time in Pensacola at Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex.

“It has been incredible and I really don’t know how else to describe it,” said Alabama coach Wes Hart in his eighth season of guiding this team into a meteoric rise. “You win some games and you make some noise and we had a (overflow) crowd where we had to turn people away at that game.

“It is awesome to see that when you are winning and you are successful that people want to watch,” he said. “And that is probably how it should be. You have to earn your support and your fans and we have done a great job of winning games and being successful and fans have come out and supported us.”

That support figures to continue in Pensacola, where Alabama has a strong alumni group and many non-graduates who are Alabama fans.

After a long run at Orange Beach, located about 40 miles west, the SEC announced in February a three-year agreement with Pensacola Sports organization to hold the event at Brosnaham Park.

Pensacola Sports leaped at the chance to secure the tournament when knowing the agreement in Orange Beach was expiring and the SEC was looking for a new home.

“I am really excited about it being in Pensacola,” said Hart, who coached two seasons as an assistant at Florida State before taking over as Alabama’s coach in 2015. “As a soccer group we felt it was pretty darn special to showcase our SEC Tournament at a pretty cool destination.

“It was a pretty good selling point. When we heard it was leaving Orange Beach we were all pretty disappointed, but for us to now be going to Pensacola I think we are all pretty excited about that.”

The rise of the Crimson Tide has been one of the biggest storylines nationally in soccer circles. After beating Auburn 1-0 on late-game goal Thursday, the Crimson Tide sealed the first unbeaten SEC record in school history and the first by any SEC team in six years.

The team’s winning streak is the second-longest among NCAA Division I women’s soccer teams. Only St. Louis University (15 straight) has a bigger streak. Alabama’s only loss was Aug. 21 at Miami.

“Wes has just done a phenomenal job building that program,” said Tennessee first-year coach Joe Kirt, whose team won the SEC Tournament last year at Orange Beach.

The No. 21-ranked Vols (11-4-2), who beat Vanderbilt Thursday to share first place in the SEC East, arrive in Pensacola as one of three other SEC teams ranked in the coaches poll. The others are No. 9 Arkansas and No. 14 South Carolina.

“I think like every sport in our league, (soccer) has continued to climb to the top of the country in terms of our resources, the quality of coaches that have come in and the players we have in our league,” Kirt said. “I think top to bottom our league is incredibly deep and that didn’t use to be the case.

“I think at one point this year we had 11 teams ranked in the top 60 of the RPI (the NCAA’s rating percentage index)  and that speaks to the depth of our league and how talented each program is.”

After being a long-time assistant, Kirt took over the Tennessee program when Vols’ coach Brian Pensky was hired at Florida State. He looks forward to see how the tournament’s move Pensacola shapes up this week.

“I flew into Pensacola one time and drove over to Orange Beach. That is about the extent of my (previous) time in Pensacola,” said Kirt, laughing. “So we are looking forward to a new start there. Orange Beach was great in man ways. But we’re excited about the opportunity in Pensacola for sure.”

The 10-team SEC Tournament begins on Sunday with two first-round games scheduled among lower seeds. Ole Miss and LSU play in the first game at 1 p.m., followed by Texas A&M vs. Mississippi State. Those winners advance into Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

Four teams in the SEC did not qualify, most notably the Florida Gators, who went through recent coaching changes last year, after long-time, highly-successful coach Becky Burleigh retired in 2021, after being the only coach in the program’s first 26 years.

The others who did not make the field were Auburn, Kentucky and Missouri.

Alabama had a successful 2021 season and won its first NCAA tournament game in school history by upsetting Clemson.

But this season has been unlike any other.

“We ended last year on a pretty good note. We had a couple big wins at the end of the year that helped us get into the NCAA Tournament,” Hart said.

“I think that momentum carried over to the spring. We didn’t lose anyone. So our starting corps group of players, we didn’t graduate anyone. We knew we were brining in a couple stud freshmen so for us we felt really good about the team coming back.

“I don’t think a lot of people knew it, or expected it. But those close to the program and knew we had the talent returning, and the talent coming in, I don’t think it was a huge surprise that we were going to be good.”

After losing to Miami, the Crimson posted wins against Clemson and a road win at perennial soccer power Brigham Young.  From that point, the wins continued.

“And from week to week you could just see it snowball,” Hart said.  “A couple people would say, ‘Hey do you worry about this group getting overconfident or complacent?’

“And for me it was almost just the opposite. I felt after every big win, every new ranking and the more attention we got, the more energy it gave the group, and it has been pretty darn incredible.”

UWF SOCCER IN GSC TOURNAMENT

The SEC Tournament beginning Sunday won’t be the only collegiate soccer tournament in town.

Quarterfinal round games in the Gulf South Conference tournament will feature the nationally-ranked University of West Florida men’s and women’s teams playing Sunday afternoon at the UWF Soccer Complex.

Both teams have had strong seasons and are favorites to win the league championship when it moves next weekend to Huntsville, Ala.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Southeastern Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament

WHEN: Sunday (first round), Tuesday Quarterfinals (Nov. 1), Thursday Semifinals (Nov. 3), Sunday Championship on Nov. 6

WHERE: Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex

FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS: LSU vs. Ole Miss (1 p.m. Sunday), Texas A&M vs. Mississippi State (3:30 p.m. Sunday)

QUARTERFINAL PAIRINGS: South Carolina vs. LSU-Ole Miss winner (12 p.m. Tuesday), Georgia vs. Tennessee (2:30 p.m. Tuesday), Alabama vs. Mississippi State-Texas A&M winner (5 p.m. Tuesday), Arkansas vs. Vanderbilt, (7:30 p.m. Tuesday)

TICKETS: Full Tournament Pass (every game) $25, single-game tickets are $7.

PARKING: Free at complex.

TELEVISION: All games live on SEC Network

UWF IN GSC TOURNAMENT

SUNDAY: UWF women vs. West Georgia (12:30 p.m.), UWF men vs. Spring Hill (3 p.m.)

WHERE: UWF Soccer Complex

ADMISSION: $5 general admission, $3 for students, military and seniors.

NEXT ROUND: Semifinals are Nov. 4 and Nov 6 at John Hunt Park, Huntsville, Alabama.

Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: College Soccer: Top-Ranked Alabama Leads Way As SEC Soccer Tournament Begins In Pensacola