NCAA Division I men’s soccer bracket unveiled, with championship at Sporting Park

In less than a month, the NCAA Division I men’s soccer champion will be crowned on the Sporting Park field — and the winning team could include some familiar names.

The 48-team tournament bracket was unveiled Monday, and it features rising U.S. national team forward Jordan Morris and 11 Sporting Kansas City Academy products. Morris will compete for Stanford, the No. 8 seed in the bracket. Wake Forest is the No. 1 seed.

The semifinal rounds will take place on Dec. 11 at Sporting Park. The College Cup championship match is scheduled for Dec. 13. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster. All preliminary rounds will be played at the site of the higher seed.

The 11 Sporting KC Academy players will represent nine different schools — Jack Freeman (Ohio State), Ryan Krutz (Notre Dame), Andrew Lightner (Dayton), Nic Jaimes and Mason Leonard (Drake), Eric DeJulio and Bryce Gibson (Creighton), Cole Stevenson (Denver), Austin Wilcox (Cal Poly), Seo-In Kim (UC Santa Barbara) and Zach Wright (North Carolina).

▪ The Division III men’s and women’s semifinals and championship matches will be played at Swope Soccer Village. The semifinal matches will take place Dec. 4, with the finals scheduled for Dec. 5.

NAIA volleyball

Defending national champion Park received the No. 2 overall seed in the NAIA women’s volleyball tournament and an opening-round bye when the pairings were announced Monday.

The Pirates, 24-8, automatically advance to the national championship site in Sioux City, Iowa, where three games of pool play Dec. 1-3 will determine an elimination bracket Dec. 4, with the championship being decided Dec. 5. Missouri Baptist and Columbia also made the tournament field with opening-round byes.

Three Missouri-Kansas teams have a chance to reach the nationals with an opening-round victory Saturday. MidAmerica Nazarene is host to Union (Ky.), Evangel will be host to Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) and Ottawa is at Wayland Baptist (Texas).

NAIA soccer

Baker received the No. 3 overall seed in the 32-team NAIA men’s soccer tournament and will open play Saturday at home against Wiley (Texas).

The Wildcats, 17-3-1, lost the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament final in overtime to Missouri Valley, 17-2-1, which is the No. 4 seed and will play host to Mount Mercy (Iowa) in the first round.

Also from the Heart, MidAmerica Nazarene, 14-5-1, reached the NAIA field and will open at home against Roosevelt (Ill.) as the No. 10 seed. Columbia is the No. 14 seed and will play host to Ashford (Iowa).

The first-round winners advance to Delray Beach, Fla., for the round of 16 through the championship, which will be contested Nov. 30-Dec. 5.

▪ The Baker women’s team also qualified for the NAIA tournament and will open at home Saturday against Viterbo (Wis.). Also from the Heart, Benedictine made the field and will play Trinity International (Ill.) at home. Park and Columbia of the American Midwest Conference also qualified. The Pirates will travel to Grace (Ind.), and Columbia goes to Vanguard (Calif.). Kansas Wesleyan will play host to Our Lady of the Lake.

The 15 first-round winners and host Mobile (Ala.) advance to Orange Beach, Ala., for the round of 16 through the championship, which will be contested Nov. 30-Dec. 5.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 5:03 PM with the headline "NCAA Division I men’s soccer bracket unveiled, with championship at Sporting Park."