Malibu's Pepperdine One of Four Southland Schools to Play in NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament

MALIBU, CA -- Pepperdine, the West Coast Conference champion, is one of four Southland schools to play in the NCAA women's soccer tournament, it was announced Monday.

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

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.

Long Beach State, the Big West Conference tournament champion, 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.

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of Pepperdine