Texas A&M coach G. Guerrieri didn't have to change any weekend travel plans after the bracket for the NCAA women's soccer tournament was announced Monday night.
The No. 20 Aggies (14-6-2), as Guerrieri suspected, will head east to Baton Rouge, La., to face Memphis (16-6) in the first round at 4:30 p.m. Friday. The winner will face the winner of a match between No. 4 seed LSU and Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 1 p.m. Sunday.
"We had a lot of conversations with the LSU coaches throughout last week as we were kind of coming up to this," Guerrieri said. "We know that geographic proximities are an important thing [in the NCAA tournament] and LSU got a seed. They get a seed and we're not seeded, so that means if we are within 400 miles that's where we go, so that wasn't really a surprise."
It's the first time the Aggies have not hosted an NCAA tournament game since joining the Big 12. There is a chance A&M could play at home again if it advances past the second round, but it's unlikely.
"For us it's a tough road. It's going to be a difficult first-round match, and if we get past that there's no easy ones at all," Guerrieri said. "We have to win four games to get home [for the Women's College Cup, which will be played at the Aggie Soccer Stadium]. A lot of teams don't have that advantage. We have a big carrot at the end, knowing that the national semifinals and finals are going to be right here in Aggieland."
The No. 1 seed in A&M's bracket is Florida State, which lost in the ACC tournament final to North Carolina. The Seminoles will likely be the Aggies' opponent if A&M makes it out of the LSU regional.
The other three No. 1 seeds in the tournament are North Carolina, Stanford and UCLA.
Memphis has won the C-USA tournament the past three years, with the latest title coming Sunday in a 3-0 victory over No. 9 Central Florida in Dallas.
"We've seen a little bit of [the Memphis Tigers] and obviously we'll be watching a lot more of them tonight," Guerrieri said. "They are solid, very organized, and I know this sounds like coach speak, but we are not playing Arkansas-Pine Bluff [who is also in the LSU regional], we're playing the Conference USA [tournament] champions, so it's going to be a really tough game."
LSU (14-4-4) lost to South Carolina on penalty kicks in the SEC tournament final. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (12-6-4) is making its first NCAA tournament appearance after defeating Prairie View A&M 1-0 in the SWAC tournament final.
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NOTES -- A&M has made the tournament 15 straight years. ... Aggie goalkeeper Kelly Dyer is from Memphis and knows many of the Tiger players from club soccer. ... Oklahoma State, the Big 12 tournament champion, was the only other team in the conference to make the NCAA tourney. Regular-season champion Missouri was left out. ... The Women's College Cup will be held Dec. 4 and 6. ... A&M went 3-4-0 against teams that gained a berth in the NCAA tournament.
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