INDIANAPOLIS - The Haverford College men's soccer team learned it will face Wesleyan (Conn.) University in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship when the brackets were revealed Monday afternoon.
The Fords (12-7) were an automatic qualifier by virtue of winning the Centennial Conference while the Cardinals (9-4-3) earned an at-large bid to qualify for their fifth tournament in the last eight seasons.
Competing for a national championship for the fourth time in program history, Haverford enters the NCAA tournament after an incredible run in the Centennial tournament that saw the third-seeded Fords claim victories over Dickinson and 10th-ranked Swarthmore by identical 1-0 scores to claim their first Centennial crown in program history. Junior Ford Bohrmann accounted for both goals and classmate Andriy Mshanetskyy registered back-to-back shutouts to propel Haverford to the title. The Fords have won four of their last five including three shutouts.
Wesleyan (9-4-3), coached by Geoff Wheeler in his 15th year, opened the season with just one loss in its first 10 contests (7-1-2) before falling three times in its final six games including a 1-0 loss to second-ranked Amherst College in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) semifinals. Senior Rory O'Neill, a second-team All-American honoree in 2011, leads the Cardinals' attack with five goals on the year while another senior Adam Purdy has played every minute in the net yielding nine goals. Purdy boasts a 0.54 goals against average and has registered seven shutouts in 2012.
Dickinson and Swarthmore also received at-large bids to the tournament to give the Centennial three representatives in the field of 62.
The first- and second-round games, hosted by fifth-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology (16-2-1), will take place at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10-11. Haverford's match-up against Wesleyan is set for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. following Stevens' 5 p.m. contest against 23rd-ranked Methodist (N.C.) University (15-2-3). Saturday's winners will meet up in the NCAA championship tournament's second round, Sunday at 5 p.m. at Arcadia.
NCAA announcement and release | 2012 NCAA D-III Men's Soccer Championship bracket (PDF)