NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene men's soccer did not have to question whether or not they would be among the selections to the 2022 NCAA DII Men's Soccer Championships tournament, but on Monday afternoon the NCAA officially announced the Nighthawks as the eight-seed in Super Region 4.
NNU (13-3-2, 9-2-1 GNAC) will play a familiar foe in the opening round, squaring off with nine-seed West Texas A&M (6-4-8, 4-1-5 Lone Star). The game will be played at top-seeded Cal State Los Angeles' field on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.
The Nighthawks and Buffs played a great game in Nampa earlier this season on Sept. 10, when NNU upset then-ranked No. 14 WTAMU 1-0 on a goal from
Sullivan Smith in the 33rd minute.
Â
The aforementioned CSULA is the one-seed in the region and awaits the winner of NNU and West Texas. St. Mary's (TX) is the two-seed in the region, followed by CSU Pueblo at 3, Cal State Dominguez Hills at 4, Colorado School of Mines at 5, Cal Poly Pomona at 6, Midwestern State at 7, and finally Biola in the 10th and final spot.
The Nighthawks claimed the GNAC's automatic bid by winning the conference's regular season title, their first GNAC Championship in program history. This will be NNU's second-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, first making it in 2014 as the four-seed.
A full preview of NNU's matchup and the regional as a whole will be posted on NNUsports.com later this week.
