November 8, 2010

Bears Face Gators in 2010 NCAA College Cup

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MACON, Ga. – Watching in great anticipation of their first-ever appearance in the NCAA College Cup, head coach Grant Serafy and the Mercer University women's soccer team found out its NCAA tournament fate as the 64-team field was revealed live on ESPNU on Monday afternoon.

The team gathered at Mellow Mushroom in Macon to watch the selection show and cheered as the Bears' logo appeared broadly on four televisions. The next foe for the Bears - The University of Florida. The Gators(18-2-2) received the No. 2 seed after winning the Southeastern Conference title over the weekend defeating South Carolina 1-0.

Mercer (10-8-1)was one of 30 teams that secured an automatic bid to the national tournament, as they too won their conference championship, defeating Jacksonville 1-0 on Saturday. The bid is the first-ever for the 26-year program and the first for head coach Grant Serafy.

Serafy had led his team to two previous A-Sun championship games and won the 2008 regular season championship. However, this will be the first NCAA tournament experience for the seventh-year head coach.

The Bears also received votes in the latest NSCAA/HendricksCars.com Southeast Regional Rankings.

"A great honor for our program," head coach Grant Serafy said. "We have been regionally ranked on three occasions and that says a lot about the strength of our program that is ranked in the same region as the ACC. I could not be happier for these young ladies and our program and Mercer."

The Bears have twice faced the Gators with the last game coming 14 years ago in 1996. However, the Bears have played the Gators of late, even defeating Florida in a spring exhibition game this past year.

The winner of Friday's match will go on to the second round to face either California or Duke on Sunday as hosted by the University of Florida.

Friday's game between the Bears and Gators will kick off at 6 p.m. eastern.