UCLA Women Awarded First-Round Bye

UCLA was one of 16 teams to earn a first-round bye as selections for the NCAA women’s soccer playoffs were announced Sunday night.

The Bruins (15-3-1) are seeded sixth and will host a second-round match Saturday at 1 p.m. Their opponent could be USC (13-5-2), which will play a first-round home game Wednesday against San Diego.

“If there is a Trojan-Bruin matchup in the cards, so be it,” USC Coach Jim Millinder said. “We’re just worried about USD.”

UCLA Coach Jillian Ellis was pleased, though she thought the Bruins could have been seeded higher had they not lost to Arizona State in overtime on Friday.

“I felt we got a good draw in the bracket,” Ellis said. “Actually this morning, I kind of had a premonition. I told our players that we’d play SC in the second round.”

Loyola Marymount (12-6-1) was not selected despite regular-season victories over Xavier, Santa Clara and San Diego--all of which made the tournament.

“I wouldn’t say we had a strong case but we had a legitimate case to be included,” said Coach Gregg Murphy, whose Lions set a school record for victories. “There are some student-athletes that should be playing Wednesday that won’t.”

Top-ranked Notre Dame earned the No. 1 seed and defending champion North Carolina is seeded fifth. Washington, the Pacific-10 Conference champion, is seeded second.