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MIAC soccer teams headed to NCAA Tournaments

INDIANAPOLIS – It was "Selection Monday" for the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Soccer Championships, and the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) will have six teams moving on to the national tournaments, with three of those squads hosting opening round games this weekend.
 
The MIAC's two automatic qualifiers – Carleton women's soccer and Macalester men's soccer – punched their tickets to the "Big Dance" this past Saturday by winning their respective MIAC Playoff tournaments. On Monday, those teams learned their NCAA opponents. However, the MIAC landed four at-large selections to the NCAA Tournaments as well, with the men's teams from Augsburg, Gustavus, and St. Olaf, along with the St. Catherine women's team, also earning berths to nationals.

Augsburg, Macalester, and St. Olaf were selected to host first and second round games in the Men's Tournament. All three programs finished the regular season ranked among the top six in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) for men's soccer, with Augsburg at No. 2, St. Olaf at No. 3, and Macalester at No. 6.
 
| Men's Soccer Bracket | Women's Soccer Bracket |
 
Augsburg (16-2-2) was the first at-large team into the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship and was selected to host a four-team pod on Saturday, November 15, and Sunday, November 16 in Minneapolis. The Auggies will take on Occidental (11-5-4) in the opening round at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The Tigers earned the AQ from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) by way of their second conference tournament title in the last three seasons.

Gustavus (14-5-1) will be on the road this weekend, but will not have to travel too far to its next game. The Gusties are also headed to Minneapolis for a first-round matchup with Edgewood (15-3-2) on the Auggies' home turf at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Both Gustavus and Edgewood received at-large berths into the national tournament following losses in the MIAC and Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournaments last week, respectively. The Gusties finished out the year ranked No. 20 in the NPI, while the Eagles were No. 30. The winner of their matchup will play the winner of the Augsburg versus Occidental game in the second round on Sunday.

Regular season MIAC champion St. Olaf (16-2-3) earned the second available at-large bid into the Tournament and will host the first two rounds in Northfield. The Oles will take on Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) champion UW-Superior (16-6-0) in the first round at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Following the opening round contest between the Oles and Yellowjackets, Midwest Conference (MWC) champion Lake Forest (19-1-0) will square off with American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) champion Luther (9-2-7) at 1:30 p.m. The two advancing teams on Saturday will meet in the round of 32 on Sunday.

MIAC playoff champion Macalester (15-4-0) was also selected to host opening round games on Saturday and Sunday. The Scots will play Illinois Wesleyan (13-2-4) at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Titans earned the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) automatic qualifier with a victory in their conference tournament final last weekend. Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) champion UW-Eau Claire (12-2-4) and NACC champion Milwaukee School of Engineering (14-5-3) will match up at 3:30 p.m. in the second contest at Macalester Stadium on Saturday. The winners will square off on Sunday afternoon.

In the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship tournament, MIAC regular-season champion St. Catherine (17-3-0) and playoff champion Carleton (16-2-2) are both headed to Illinois for the weekend.

St. Catherine will play its next game at UChicago. The Wildcats are set to face WIAC champion UW-La Crosse (18-2-1) at 1:30 PM on Saturday, after the host Maroons (12-2-3) - the second at-large team into the national tournament and one of seven University Athletic Association (UAA) programs in the championship field - take on UMAC champion UW-Superior (11-7-4) at 11:00 a.m. The two teams to advance out of round one will meet on Sunday, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.

Carleton will travel an hour north of Chicago to Lake Forest for its first-round matchup with North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) champion John Carroll (13-5-1) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The 11:00 a.m. matchup will feature St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) champion Spalding (14-4-2) facing the nation's only undefeated and untied team, the 20-0-0 Midwest Conference champion Lake Forest. The advancing teams from Saturday's action will meet on Sunday. Game times for round two are yet to be released.

The MIAC narrowly missed out on landing a third women's soccer team in the national tournament. An upset in the MAC Freedom finale gave Stevens (11-3-6, No. 51 in NPI) the conference's AQ and turned Misericordia (15-4-1, No. 33 in NPI) into an at-large team. The last available at-large spot in the tournament then went to Rhodes (12-4-2) at No. 41 in the NPI, resulting in No. 42 St. Olaf becoming the first team left out of the championship field. The difference in NPI between Rhodes and St. Olaf was 0.018.

This is the first time since 2009 that the MIAC has had six soccer teams selected to participate in the NCAA Championships. Fans can use the NCAA's interactive brackets to track the progress of each tournament (links above and below) and can also follow the action on the MIAC scoreboard or the MIAC mobile app.
 
| Men's Soccer Bracket | Women's Soccer Bracket |