Grove City Earns Top Seed for 2023 PAC Women's Soccer Tournament

Tournament Kicks Off Oct. 28th with Quarterfinals

10/25/2023 8:15:00 PM

TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - After completing the regular season with a 9-0-1 conference record, Grove City College earned the top seed and home-field advantage through the 2023 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Women's Soccer Championship Tournament, as the conference released the tournament field Wednesday night.

The six-team tournament begins Saturday, Oct. 28th with quarterfinal action. The tournament winner will receive the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, which begins the following week.

Admission to all PAC Championship Tournament matches is $5 for adults and $2 for students, with students at PAC host institutions admitted for free with valid identification.

Grove City earned the #1 seed with a nearly perfect PAC record, the only blemish being a 3-3 draw with Franciscan University on Sept. 23. The Wolverines, who are 12-4-1 overall, will carry a seven-game winning streak into the Tournament. Grove City and No. 2 Westminster College (14-3, 8-2 PAC) receive quarterfinal byes as the top two seeds.

Grove City has won seven PAC championships, with the most recent coming when they claimed back-to-back crowns in 2018 and 2019. The Wolverines have appeared in the league's title match 19 times, including nine straight between 2012 and the spring of 2021.

Westminster is the defending league champion, as the Titans won the 2022 championship with a 2-0 victory over Franciscan University. It was the sixth PAC championship for Westminster, who won three straight titles from 2002-04 before taking back-to-back crowns in 2006 and 2007.

The Tournament gets underway Saturday with a pair of quarterfinal matches. No. 3 Saint Vincent College (10-4-3, 6-2-2 PAC) will host No. 6 Franciscan (7-7-1, 5-4-1) at 7 pm in Latrobe. This is the first 10-win season for the Bearcats since 2013, while the team's six PAC victories are its most since becoming a full league member in 2011. The Barons, who won three of their last four games to earn a spot in the Tournament, reached the PAC title match last season before falling to Westminster.

Saint Vincent won the regular season meeting with Franciscan by a 4-0 score on Oct. 14th.

Saturday's afternoon quarterfinal pits No. 4 Washington & Jefferson College (10-3-4, 5-2-3 PAC) against No. 5 Waynesburg University (8-6-2, 5-3-2 PAC) at 2:30 pm in Washington, Pa. W&J won three consecutive PAC championships from 2008-10 and is appearing in the tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 years. For the Yellow Jackets, they punched their ticket to the Tournament with a 5-2 victory over Geneva College Tuesday night and are making their first postseason appearance since 2021.

When the Presidents and Yellow Jackets met Oct. 4th in the regular season tilt, the match finished in a 2-2 tie after Waynesburg scored the equalizing goal with less than 10 minutes to play.

The quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals, which will be played Wednesday, Nov. 1. The winner of the W&J/Waynesburg match will travel to Grove City, while Westminster will welcome the team that emerges from the Saint Vincent/Franciscan quarterfinal to New Wilmington. Semifinal start times will be finalized and released after Saturday's quarterfinal matches. 

The championship match, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 4, will be hosted by the highest remaining seed following next Wednesday's semifinals. Information on the title match will be announced after the completion of the semifinal round. 

Selections for the 64-team Division III Championship will be announced Monday, Nov. 6. First and second round matchups are scheduled for Friday-Sunday, Nov. 10-12.