Most conference championships begin next week

Day Three of our running look at the filling of the fields for the NCAA Men’s And Women’s Tournaments. Click for Day 1 | Day 2

A quick look at the Men

Most of the conference tournaments on the men’s side are next week, but there are some important games going on with the men this week.

The opening round of the Big East Tournament saw three matches played Wednesday. Georgetown went out on penalties to DePaul. While the match is considered a draw in the record books, it won’t be a helpful result for the Hoyas as they look toward the NCAA Tournament.

In other Big East matches, Villanova lost 2-1 to Providence after the Friars scored twice in the final 11 minutes, dealing a blow to the Wildcats’ tourney hopes. West Virginia lost to Rutgers 2-0 at home. South Florida hosts Marquette on Thursday.

On the Women’s Side…

ACC Underway… Conference tournament are underway and some important results have already been registered. Florida State defeated Duke 2-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference action at Cary, NC, and so now the Blue Devils will have to wait and see if the Selection Committee feels an 8th team from the ACC is a must.

Duke is 8-8-4 overall but has a high RPI due to the tough ACC and non-conference schedule they play. Tiffany McCarty scored the winner for the #6 Seminoles, with an own goal accounting for the final tally.

Virginia Tech defeated Wake Forest 1-0. Both teams should be in the Big Dance. The other two ACC quarterfinal matches saw Boston College defeat Virginia on penalties after 110 minutes of scoreless play, and North Carolina defeated Maryland 3-0 on goals by Tobin Heath, Lucy Bronze and an own goal.

SEC Too… In beautiful Orange Beach, Alabama, LSU probably ended Vanderbilt’s tournament hopes with a 4-2 quarterfinal win, while Auburn kept its hopes for the NCAA alive by beating Mississippi 2-1. Top-seeded Florida beat Tennessee 1-0 in double overtime on Lindsay Thompson’s golden goal, while Kortney Rhoades scored a late winner to lift South Carolina past Georgia 3-2.

Sun Belt Shocker… Top-seeded Florida International lost 1-0 to Arkansas Little Rock in the Sun Belt first round. Kamiya Merrick scored the overtime winner for the #8 seed Trojans. The result begs the question why do smaller conferences play postseason tournaments, but nobody at UALR is concerned with that now.

Kelly Isleib (23) and Stephanie Lemeza (17) celebrate Utah's victory.

Mountain West Memo… Utah defeated TCU 3-1 and New Mexico beat Wyoming 1-0 to set up a pair of attractive semifinal contests at that conference tournament in Provo, Utah, on Thursday. Utah plays San Diego State and the Lobos face tourney host and regular season champion BYU.

Big 12 Bouts… Hannah Higgins kept hope alive for the Texas Longhorns, the freshman scoring in overtime to lift her squad to a 1-0 win over Colorado, which may end the Buffaloes' tourney hopes. Oklahoma State beat Nebraska 3-0 while conference coach of the year Bryan Blitz’s Missouri Tigers beat Kansas 3-2 in overtime. Rachel Shipley and Bri Young scored as top-seeded Texas A&M(w) beat Baylor 2-0.

Battle of the Sycamores… In Big Ten regular season play Tuesday night, Purdue got a late goal from Sylvia Forbes to knock off arch-rivals Indiana 2-1. The Boilermakers are surely in the NCAA field. The Hoosiers might be but that result does not help, and could assist Minnesota or Michigan State in their quest to be the 5th team from the Big Ten to make the tournament.

Click here for our Day 1 and Day 2 breakdowns