Bulldogs To Face Michigan State In NCAA Tournament

Nov. 19, 2001

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Butler men's soccer team will face Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament first round, the NCAA Division 1 Men's Soccer Committee announced today (Nov. 19). The two teams will square off on Friday, Nov. 23 at Indiana University's Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington, Ind. Game time is slated for 6:30 p.m. This will be the first meeting between the Bulldogs (11-8) and Michigan State (12-5-1). The Spartans lost to Indiana in the Big Ten Championships over the weekend, 2-0. The winner of the Butler/Michigan State match-up will take on fourth-seeded Indiana, which earned a first-round bye, on Sunday, Nov. 25. Butler fell to the Hoosiers 3-0 on Oct. 4 this season in a non-league contest.

Butler earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by defeating UW-Milwaukee, 2-0, in the Horizon League Tournament Championships on Saturday (Nov. 17). This is the fourth time in the program's history that Butler has earned the rights into the NCAA Tournament, with its last appearance coming in 1998. UW-Milwaukee received an at-large bid into the tournament.

This year's NCAA Tournament bracket is the largest field in the history of the Division 1 men's soccer tournament, since expansion of the bracket from 32 to 48 last summer. Twenty conferences were awarded autotatic bids for the 2001 tournament and the remaining 28 teams were selected at-large. The 48 teams in the Tournament will be vying for the right to compete at the 2001 NCAA Men's College Cup on December 14 and 16 in Columbus, Ohio, at Columbus Crew Stadium.