OKLAHOMA CITY - The Mid-America Christian University men's soccer team will carry the banner for the Sooner Athletic Conference in the 60th Annual NAIA Men's Soccer Championship.
MACU (12-5-1) was the only SAC team to be included in the field of 31 teams for the Championship, which was announced by the NAIA National Office on Monday afternoon.
The Evangels knew they would be in the field after their 5-3 penalty shootout victory following their 1-1 draw at the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma on Friday evening in the SAC Championship final. The title is the first SAC tournament championship for any MACU team, and it marks only the second time in MACU history that a team has claimed any SAC title, joining the 2014-15 men's basketball regular season championship.
MACU set up a watch party on campus on Monday to watch the bracket selection show, and with the team and dozens of others looking on in Cafe 1412, the Evangels settled in to find out who their host would be for the Opening Round. The assembled crowd watched in anticipation first through some technical dificiluties that delayed the start of the show, and then as matchup after matchup was revealed without MACU being listed. Finally, the Evangels' name was called opposite NAIA #21 and 11th-seeded Kansas Wesleyan University. The Coyotes of KWU are 17-4 on the season, and they earned their qualification as the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season champion. The Yotes ran the table in the KCAC, postin a perfect 12-0 mark in conference play and they were 10-2 on their home floor.
The meeting will be the first ever contest between the two schools, but there was some overlap in the teams' 2018 schedules. The 'yotes played three common opponents with MACU, and KWU posted a 2-1 record in those matches, claiming wins over Southwestern Christian University (4-2) and Bethel College Threshers (4-0), while falling to USAO (2-1). MACU took the field against one other team in the field this year, taking a 4-1 defeat at Rocky Mountain College (Mont.) on Labor Day.
The time for the match has not yet been set, as the Coyotes will host another SAC team on the same field at the Graves Family Sports Complex on Saturday. KWU is also hosting an Opening Round game in the NAIA Football Championship Series against Langston University at 1 p.m., and the soccer match will take place on the turfed field on Saturday as well. The match will be streamed by the KWU athletic department on a pay-per-view basis for $9.95.
Both teams won their conference tournaments, as KWU beat Avila University (Mo.) 8-1 in the KCAC quarterfinal, then outlasting McPherson College (Kan.) 2-1 in the semifinals before claiming the title over NAIA #4 Oklahoma Wesleyan University 3-2 in the championship match. The Coyotes hosted all three matches at the Graves Family Sports Complex. MACU opened the SAC tournament with a 2-0 win at Oklahoma City before they went on the road and ended the season of the defending NAIA champions, the #13 Wayland Baptist (Texas) Pioneers 2-1 in the semifinal. In the championship match, MACU and then-#20 USAO played to a 1-1 draw before the Evangels claimed the title in penalties to advance to the NAIA National Championship and end the Drovers' campaign.
The Evangels and Coyotes are in a pod with third-seeded Central Methodist University (Mo.; 17-2-2) and the Huntington University Foresters (Ind.; 11-7-3). The Eagles of CMU qualified at the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season champions, and the Foresters were the Crossroads League tournament champions. The winners of those two Opening Round matches will meet in the round of 16 in Irvine, California on November 27 at 6 p.m. CST.
Three other teams are in MACU's quadrant of the bracket. The host Vanguard University Lions (Calif.; 12-4-2) received the host bid directly to the final site as the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season champions, and they will await the winner of the Opening Round match between the No. 6 seed Hastings College Broncos (Neb.; 17-2) and Rocky Mountain (16-4-1). Both the Broncos (Great Plains Athletic Conference) and Battlin' Bears (Cascade Collegiate Conference) claimed their conference tournament titles.
Of the 31 teams into the field, 27 earned their way in with automatic berths. Of those 27, nine earned their berths as the regular season champions of their respective conferences, 16 won their way in as conference tournament champions, and the final two earned their bids as regular season runners-up in conferences with two bids that had the same team win both the regular season and tournament championships.
Four teams made it into the field as at-large qualifiers, and they were selected by a committe of 10 NAIA soccer coaches and athletic administrators. The four at-large teams represented three different conferences, as well as the Association of Independent Institutions. The highest seeded at-large team is the Baker University (Kan.) Wildcats (15-5) from the Heart of America Athletic Conference who check in as the No. 8 seed in the bracket. The independent Bellevue University (Neb.) Bruins (17-1-2) are the 10th seed in the bracket, the Spring Arbor University (Mich.) Cougars (16-4-1) earned a spot out of the Crossroads League, and the Cascade Collegiate Conference's Corban University (Ore.) Warriors (14-3-1) earned the final at-large spot in the field and they are the No. 12 seed.
The Heart of America Athletic Conference and the Cascade Collegiate Conference were the only conferences that got three teams into the field. The American Midwest Conference, California Pacific Athletic Conference, Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, Crossroads League, Golden State Athletic Conference, Great Plains Athletic Conference, KCAC, and the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference each got two teams into the bracket; and the remaining conferences - the Appalachain Athletic Conference, the Mid-South Conference, the Red River Athletic Conference, the River States Conference, the SAC, the Southern States Athletic Conference, and the Sun Conference - each placed one team in the tournament.
Two Sooner Athletic Conference teams were ranked in the final NAIA Top-25 coaches poll and were left out of the field. Wayland Baptist checked in at No. 13 in the final poll with a record of 13-4, and they claimed the SAC regular season title with 21 points to their credit in conference. USAO finished the season with a record of 14-3-3, and they checked in at No. 20 in the final poll.
The NAIA Network – the association's official video-streaming home – will broadcast all 15 matches live at the 2018 NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship final site in Irvine, Calif. The video platform, powered by Stretch Internet, allows users access to live video, statistics and social interaction on a number of devices, including mobile. Single-day passes can be purchased for $9.95; an all-tournament package is available for $29.95.
Fans can also purchase an All-Championship Pass for $99, which allows them to watch every NAIA Championship this academic year.
