Published: November 09, 2009 09:29 pm      

Bronchos head to national tourney

UCO wins LSC Championships for automatic berth

INDIANAPOLIS — Lone Star Conference champion Central Oklahoma will make its seventh appearance in the NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Championship this week after the Bronchos were named the No. 6 seed in the South Central Regional during Monday evening’s selection show.

UCO earned the league’s automatic berth into the 48-team national playoffs with Sunday’s shootout victory over West Texas A&M in the LSC Tournament finals and will travel to San Antonio, Texas for the first two rounds of the six-team South Central Regional.

The Bronchos (14-6-2) will take on third-seeded St. Edward’s (15-3-1) in a first-round game Friday at a time to be determined, with the winner advancing to meet second-seeded Incarnate Word (15-2-3) Sunday. UCO opened the season on the road against those two teams, falling to UIW 2-1 and to SEU 2-0.

Nebraska-Omaha will meet Truman State in another first-round South Central Regional contest Friday in Canyon, Texas, with the winner taking on top-seeded WTAMU Sunday.

The regional finals and quarterfinals will be held Nov. 20-22, followed by the Final Four in Tampa, Fla. Dec. 3-5.

“It’s great to be in the national tournament again and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do this week,” said head coach Mike Cook, who has a 188-60-14 record in 12 years as the only coach in school history. “We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now and feel we can compete with anybody we go against.”

UCO is in the national tournament for the seventh time, having previously qualified in 2000, ‘02, ‘03, ‘05, ‘06 and ‘07. The Bronchos have a 3-4-2 playoff record, making it to the Sweet 16 in their last appearance in 2007 before losing a 1-0 decision to Incarnate Word in the regional finals.