Michigan State women's soccer gets a 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, will host Milwaukee on Friday
Michigan State’s women’s soccer team will open NCAA tournament play at home against Milwaukee at 6 p.m. this Friday at DeMartin Stadium.
MSU received a 4 seed in its corner of 64-team NCAA tournament bracket, announced Monday afternoon. If the Spartans beat Milwaukee on Friday, they’ll play the winner of 5-seed TCU and Texas-San Antonio on Nov. 18 at Notre Dame. The Irish are the No. 1 seed in MSU's side of the bracket and would potentially be the Spartans' Sweet 16 opponent on Nov. 20.
MSU, which is 16-2-3 and finished unbeaten in Big Ten play during the regular season on its way to its first official conference championship, is making its first NCAA tournament appearance in 13 seasons. The Spartans went 8-0-1 in Big Ten games and then 2-1 in the Big Ten tournament, reaching the final.
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One could argue that MSU deserved a better seed than it got. Penn State, which beat the Spartans in the Big Ten tournament final, 3-2, at a neutral site but lost to MSU in Happy Valley earlier in the season, is a No. 2 seed in the field. Northwestern, which also lost to MSU, is a 4 seed.
Rutgers and Ohio State, both of which fell to the Spartans in the final week of the regular season, are 5 and 6 seeds, respectively, as the Big Ten's other two teams to make it.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women's soccer begins NCAA tournament at home Friday
