Long Beach State One of Four Southland Schools to Play in NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament

LONG BEACH, CA -- Long Beach State, the Big West Conference tournament champion is one of four Southland schools to play in the NCAA women's soccer tournament, it was announced Monday.

Long Beach State will play at Santa Clara (9-6-4) Saturday at 1 p.m. This is the second consecutive year the 49ers have faced the Broncos in the tournament.

Three other Southland schools also made the tournament field.

USC received a No. 2 seed in the 64-team NCAA women's soccer tournament field while UCLA received a No. 4 seed.

The Trojans (14-4-1), who received an at-large berth after tying for second in the Pac-12 Conference behind Stanford, will open tournament play Saturday at 1 p.m. by playing host to Eastern Washington (13-4-4), the Big Sky Tournament champions.

The No. 2 seeding ties the program high. USC also received a No. 2 seed in 2007.

The Bruins (13-5-1), who tied for fourth in the Pac-12, will open tournament play Friday at 7 p.m. at Marshall Field at Drake Stadium, facing Seattle (14-5-1), the Western Athletic Conference champion.

Pepperdine (12-4-3), the West Coast Conference champion, will play host to California (13-5-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Tari Frahm Rokus Field.

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of Long Beach State