NCAA Bracket-Watch, Round-1!

ODU Monarchs!  The first round of the Men's Soccer NCAA Tournament has finished.  Last night's action was in danger of going unfortunately unnoticed by many college soccer fans.  Being nearly eclipsed by the drama and hype surrounding Round-1 of the final Harry Potter movie the NCAA Tournament was brought right back to the front page by one of Drexel's classic CAA rivals.  While William & Mary got to rest the first round of the tournament, sitting high on their CAA Champ automatic-bid, Old Dominion (the only other team to make it in from the CAA) made the best of one of the toughest draws in the bracket.  The Monarchs were stuck facing The University of Virginia, last years NCAA Champions, on the road in Charlottesville VA.  

They will certainly get good reviews for that one!  A 1-0 win bumps ODU's all-time NCAA playoff record to 7-9 and advances them to the 2nd round of the tournament (the 3rd straight year in a row they have done so...).  While in previous years you would have assumed that Old Dominion would get into the tournament and do well, 2010 was not a year to win a bet on that same assumption.  Old Dominion finished tied for 4th in the 2010 CAA table and didn't even make the playoffs by virtue of a head-to-head loss to Delaware.  Talk about a roller coaster!  Going from essentially 5th place in the CAA, because of a loss to one of the perpetually poorest teams in the CAA (That's UDel), to a surprise bid in the NCAA Tournament where they snatched a win from the defending NCAA Champions!  Harry Potter, sorry, but as good as Round-1 of The Deathly Hallows was (and it was good...) you got nothing on The Old Dominion Monarchs as far as cinematic drama.

Check out the official write up on UVA's website as well as ODU's and on CAASports.com.  You might find a bit of irony as well in the post NCAA bracket selection blog.  

Old Dominion and William & Mary both get right back to NCAA action on the 21st.  This Sunday, Old Dominion will travel to Penn State for a 2:00pm game and William & Mary will play host to UMBC at 5:00pm.