Broncos advance with first-round bye

By Joe Doss-Antoun

The men's soccer team crowded around together early Monday afternoon in The Bronco to see what their NCAA tournament fate would hold for them.

Although the Broncos clinched the West Coast Conference championship, which guaranteed them a spot in this year's post-season, the Broncos learned that their 12-4-4 overall season record was good enough for the No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

"We are very pleased to get the No. 10 seed and get that bye in the first round," said head coach Cameron Rast. "This team has made tremendous progress this season with a lot of new players so I'm very proud of the effort that they have made."

Of the 48 teams that qualify, the top 16 earn a first-round bye. With the No. 10 seed, the Broncos won't take the field until the second round on Nov. 15.

"The bye is great for two reasons. It gives us the opportunity to play our first game in front of a home crowd and it gives us the chance to avoid any injuries that we might have endured in that first round game," said Rast.

Santa Clara will host the winner of the Creighton-Washington game, which takes place on Nov. 10.

The Indiana Hoosiers are another potential early opponent for the Broncos, assuming both teams win their games. The Hoosiers have appeared in 20 consecutive NCAA tournaments and are responsible for knocking the Broncos out of the College Cup (soccer's version of the Final Four) in 2003. That year, the Hoosiers went on to win the national championship.

Indiana and Santa Clara will face each other if both teams are victorious in their second round games.

However, with such a competitive field of teams the Broncos know they can't get ahead of themselves and start thinking about any game beyond the one at hand.

"The tournament comes down to experience and the ability to win hard-fought games," said senior captain Erik Ustruck. "Every game will be close so we have to focus on playing well and moving on to the next week."

Ustruck gained vital playoff experience after participating in three previous NCAA tournaments. He's also one of two remaining players from the team that reached the College Cup in 2003.

Captain Peter Lowry believes that his team will use the experience gained throughout the season to help get them through each round.

"Early on in the year, we learned a lot of good lessons that helped us a lot down the stretch," said Lowry. "The team has been playing well recently and I think that we are ready to make a good run in the tournament."

Many of these lessons were learned during the first month of the season.

In a span of three weeks, the Broncos faced three teams who would eventually go on to earn top 16 bids.

The Broncos lost to No. 8 seed UCLA, beat No. 11 seed St. Louis, and tied No. 13 seed Cal, who has knocked them out of the last two tournaments.

"We have played a strong schedule this year so I think that will help us in the tournament," said Ustruck.

The Broncos were able to spot their mistakes in these games and learn from them going into conference play.

Now, the Broncos are on the heels of a 10 game streak where they went 7-1-2.

The San Francisco Dons are the only other WCC team represented in the tournament, but did not earn a top 16 bid. They will host New Mexico on Nov. 10.

Other notable teams in the tournament field include top seeded Duke and defending national champion Maryland, who is the No. 8 seed. Both teams are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which put seven teams into the tournament, four of which are the top five seeds.

The Broncos will use their bye week to help stay fresh for their second round match against either Washington or Creighton.

Ultimately, the goal is to reach the College Cup, which will be held on Dec. 1st and 3rd in St. Louis.

Contact Joe Doss-Antoun at (408) 551-1918 or jdossantoun@scu.edu.