2009 NCAA Tournament Bracket

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth men’s soccer team was one of four Ivy League teams to get the call tonight, earning one of 27 coveted at-large bids to the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Big Green travels to Boston College this Thursday.

It will be a rematch of last year’s NCAA Second Round game in which Dartmouth, then seeded 16th nationally, advanced past Boston College on penalty kicks. This year the Eagles play host this Thursday, Nov. 19 in Chestnut Hill, Mass. at 7 p.m.

This marks Dartmouth’s fifth NCAA appearance in the last six years, getting the nod in 2004 and 2005 as Ivy Champs and at-large bids in 2007, 2008 and now in 2009. It is the Big Green's fifth NCAA appearance in head coach Jeff Cook's nine seasons. The Big Green was considered a bubble team today after falling to Brown on Sunday to finish the regular season at 10-6-1, 4-3 Ivy, good for fourth place. Yet the selection committee looked favorably on a very strong Ivy League, placing four of eight Ivy teams in the Field of 48. Harvard earned a #10 national seed and first round bye while Brown and Princeton will both host first round games.

Should Dartmouth advance past Boston College the team will travel to Queens, N.Y. to face #13 seeded St. John’s. The teams met in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, 1-0 St. John’s win in the second round. BC won seven of its last eight regular season games to finish at 12-8 overall. The Eagles lost to both the Ivy teams they played, Yale and Harvard. Dartmouth defeated Yale but was edged, 2-1, by the Crimson.

In last year’s tournament, Dartmouth and BC battled for 110 scoreless minutes before advancing past the Eagles on penalty kicks, 4-2, to reach the Sweet 16 where the Big Green lost to Wake Forest. Also an at-large entry in 2007, Dartmouth played to a 1-1 tie with regional rival Vermont but the Catamounts advanced to the next round on penalty kicks. The Big Green is 4-8-4 overall in NCAA Tournament play, with its best outings coming in 1990 and 1992 when it reached the Elite Eight and the 2008 Sweet 16 run.

The Big Green, who ranked as high as fifth in the nation this year, has played seven of the teams in the 2009 NCAA field: Brown, UConn, Harvard, Loyola Marymount, Princeton, San Diego and South Florida, with a 2-4-1 record.

Dartmouth heads to Boston College for kick-off this Thursday at 7 p.m.