After clinching its fourth straight Missouri Valley Conference title, Loyola Chicago leads the six-team tournament field for the MVC Women’s Soccer Championship. The tournament kicks off with the quarter-finals matches on Sunday, October 31.
Printable WSOC Bracket (PDF)
The Ramblers earned the top spot after an unbeaten conference season going 7-0-1. The Ramblers enter the tourney with a 30-2-2 mark against MVC competition over the past three-plus seasons. Overall, Loyola put up an impressive 11-2-2 season tally and leads the conference in RPI at 62.
Valparaiso earns the second first-round bye after going 6-1-1 in conference play, with their only loss being the league champions. This is the Beacons’ highest finish since joining the league in 2017, besting their third-place finish in the spring season.
Indiana State tallied 14 points and has the honor of hosting one of the quarter-final matches Sunday, October 31. After concluding the spring season as runner-ups, the Sycamores recorded a 4-2-2 conference mark and were the final team above the .500 mark in the MVC portion of their schedule.
Northern Iowa grabbed the final hosting slot as the Panthers recorded 10 points after compiling a record of 3-4-1. This is familiar territory for UNI as they found themselves in fourth place at the close of last season. An earlier tie with second seed Valparaiso separated the Panthers from the fifth and sixth seed despite finishing with the same conference win percentage of .438.
The last two teams in this year’s tournament are No. 5 Drake and No. 6 Evansville, both of which finished conference play with identical 2-3-3 records. However, Drake garnered the fifth spot thanks to their play against the top four seeds resulting in more points per match than the Purple Aces at 1 point per match versus 0.75 points per match. The Redbirds of Illinois State also finished with a 2-3-3 mark but were left on the outside looking in.
The sixth-seeded Evansville plays Indiana State in an opening-round match Sunday at 12 p.m. CT (The Valley on ESPN), with the winner going on to face Valparaiso Friday, November 5, at 3.m. CT in Chicago. Drake heads to Northern Iowa for its Sunday showdown that begins at 10:30 a.m. CT. The winner of this match takes on Loyola in the second semi-final that starts at 6 p.m. on the Ramblers home pitch.
All five matches of the six-team tournament will air on The Valley on ESPN, with the quarter-finals being played at the higher seeds home while the semi-finals and finals take place on the No. 1 seeds pitch. The winner of the league tournament receives the MVC’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Loyola has represented the MVC for the past three seasons.