After finishing the regular season at 11-4-1 and with a No. 16 ranking in the final NAIA regular season Top 25 Coaches’ Poll on Sunday, the Benedictine College men’s soccer team earned their first-ever host bid on Monday afternoon when the 2013 NAIA Men’s Soccer National Tournament Opening Round pairings were released.
Benedictine earned the No. 6 overall seed in the tournament and will host Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the BC Soccer Complex.
“We are certainly excited to host the first-ever national tournament game on campus in the history of our program,” said head coach Rob Herringer. “We’ve been playing soccer now for 53 years and for this game to be here on campus is going to be a special moment for our alumni, our current players, our students and staff.
“We couldn’t be more excited to play this game.”
Olivet Nazarene earned their bid to the tournament by winning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament. They enter the game with an overall record of 15-5-1 and are making their third appearance in the National Tournament.
“They are a strong program and have a good reputation as a soccer program,” Coach Herringer said. “They made it to the national tournament, so you know they have to be pretty good. We have a tremendous amount of respect for them.
“We don’t know much about them and that’s a good thing for us. Sometimes we know too much about our opponents and that’s not always a good thing. It’ll be nice to play someone different.”
The trip to the Opening Round marks the third time in the past five years for Benedictine and their fifth overall appearance in the NAIA National Tournament.
General admission tickets for the game at $10, with student tickets going for $8 and youth tickets available for $5. Tickets can be purchased on site on the day of the game.
The winner of the game advances to the national tournament site in Montgomery, Ala., with the National Championship running from Dec. 2-7.
— BC Sports Information —