Big Ten champion Maryland received the No. 4 seed in the NCAA men's soccer tournament and will host former ACC rival Wake Forest or in-state foe UMBC in the second round Sunday at Ludwig Field.
Unbeaten in 11 straight following a 2-1 victory over Indiana in the conference final Sunday, the Terrapins (13-5-3) are seeking a third consecutive trip to the College Cup. They lost to Georgetown in the 2012 semifinals and fell to Notre Dame in last year's championship match.
By securing a top-four seed, the Terps are assured of playing at home through the quarterfinals, if they continue to advance. The top three seeds are defending national champion Notre Dame, UCLA and Michigan State, which lost to Maryland on penalty kicks in the Big Ten semifinals.
If the seeds hold, the Terps and Hoosiers would meet again, in the quarterfinals.
At-large selection Wake Forest (10-7-1) and America East champion UMBC (12-5-3) will play one another Thursday in Winston-Salem, N.C., one of 16 first-round matches in the 48-team competition, which will culminate at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., Dec. 12-14.
Maryland and UMBC met in the regular season, a 0-0 draw in College Park in early September.
Big East semifinalist Georgetown (12-4-4) is the No. 8 seed and will face Conference USA champion Old Dominion or Northeast Conference winner St. Francis (N.Y.) on Sunday at Shaw Field.
Virginia (10-6-2), a College Cup semifinalist last year, is seeded 16th and will await Patriot League champion Bucknell or UNC Wilmington on Sunday in Charlottesville.
James Madison, an automatic qualifier by winning the Colonial Athletic Association title with a 10-7-4 record, will visit North Carolina (12-5-1), with the winner advancing to play No. 10 Charlotte.
George Mason (11-4-5), American (11-4-4) and Navy (11-4-5) did not receive at-large berths despite superlative seasons. The Midshipmen were second in the Patriot League regular season and finished the schedule on a 7-0-4 streak but lost to Bucknell on penalty kicks in the conference semifinals and suffered from a middling place in the RPI, which weighs strength of schedule. Mason was on the verge of upsetting Atlantic 10 front-runner Rhode Island in the conference semifinals - an outcome that would have enhanced its NCAA hopes - but conceded a late equalizer and lost in extra time. AU, which upset second-seeded UCLA early in the season, fell on penalty kicks in the first round of the Patriot tournament.
The 16 seeded teams:
1. Notre Dame
2. UCLA
3. Michigan State
4. Maryland
5. Indiana
6. Stanford
7. Clemson
8. Georgetown
9. Syracuse
10. Charlotte
11. Providence
12. Creighton
13. Louisville
14. Washington
15. California
16. Virginia
The NCAA women's tournament will continue this weekend with second- and third-round matches at set locations. On Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia (19-2-0) will face Rutgers (13-5-0) and Kentucky (15-6-1) will play Arizona State (12-5-4), with the winners colliding Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium. On Friday in State College, Pa., Virginia Tech (15-5-0) and Georgetown (11-4-6) will meet for the second time this season, with the winner playing Penn State (18-3-0) or Connecticut (14-4-5) on Sunday. The Hoyas were the only unseeded team to defeat one of the 16 seeds in the first round, a shootout victory at West Virginia after a 0-0 draw. [ Complete bracket]