RICHMOND, Va. – George Mason has earned the No. 5 seed in its inaugural Atlantic 10 Women's Soccer Championship and will play fourth-seeded St. Bonaventure on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The tournament, which runs November 7-10, will take place at VCU's Sports Backers Stadium.
Mason capped off its regular season with a 4-4-0 mark in the A-10 and 7-10-1 overall. St. Bonaventure rattled off four consecutive conference wins to also finish with a 4-4-0 mark in the A-10.
“We are very excited to finish in the top five of the conference this season and we are looking forward to competing in the first A-10 Championship for George Mason women's soccer,” commented head coach Diane Drake. “We expect it to be just as competitive as our first season and we can't wait to get to Richmond.”
Dayton finished the regular season 7-1 in conference play to earn the top seed and will face eighth-seeded and host VCU at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The Flyers suffered their only conference loss of the regular season to reigning A-10 Champion, La Salle, in the final weekend of the season. The Rams finished 3-3-2 in league play and 8-7-3 overall.
Completing the regular season with three consecutive conference victories, La Salle clinched the second seed finishing 5-2-1 in the A-10 and 13-4-2 overall. The Explorers will face seventh-seeded George Washington at 11 a.m. to open the Championship on Thursday. GW clinched its birth into the tournament on the final day of the regular season and enters the bracket with a 3-3-2 A-10 record and 7-5-5 overall mark.
Saint Louis picked up the third seed and will face sixth-seeded UMass in the 1:30 p.m. match. The Billikens finished with 16 points behind a 5-2-1 league mark and 6-10-2 overall ledger. The Minutewomen capped the regular season at 3-3-2 in A-10 action and won the tiebreak over GW and VCU.
The winner of the La Salle-George Washington game will play the winner of the Saint Louis-UMass match, Friday at 5 p.m. The winner of Dayton-VCU will face the winner of the St. Bonaventure-George Mason game in the semifinals, Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Championship game will be played on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. The championship format, featuring an eight-team bracket, is single elimination, with the winner earning the A-10's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
For complete coverage of the 2013 Atlantic 10 Women's Soccer Championship, visit the Championship Central page by clicking here. Each game of the championship will be streamed for free on the A-10 Digital Network.
