Women Booters Named As Third Seed For AIAW National Tourney at UNC

The Harvard women's soccer team was named third seed for the upcoming AIAW National Tournament on November 19-22 in Chapel Hill, N.C., in a decision made by the tournament committee during a three-hour conference call last night.

The Crimson, which has won both the Ivy League and Eastern tournaments this year, has an opening-round bye and will play the victor of the Colorado College-University of Central Florida match in the quarterfinals of the 12-team tourney Friday, November 20.

The nine regional champions--Harvard, North Carolina, Central Florida, Texas A&M, Oregon, Cincinnati, Missouri-St. Louis, Colorado College, and UCal-Berkeley--were automatically invited to the tournament, with the committee deciding upon the three other slots from among teams which requested an at-large bid.

Connecticut and Massachusetts--seeded fifth and eighth respectively--were the other teams from the Eastern region, undoubtedly the nation's most competitive conference, to receive invitations. Wisconsin-Madison, ranked 14th nationally, was the third squad to gain an at-large bid.

"We're in a good bracket, I didn't want to play UMass or UConn in the semis," Crimson head coach Bob Scalise said last night. "Now we won't have to play them until the finals."

"When you play a team twice, the winning team's at a disadvantage," added Scalise, whose booters defeated both UConn and UMass in the Eastern regionals last weekend. "The losing team will adjust its strategy for the second meeting, while the winner will play according to about the same game plan."

According to the seeding chart, Harvard will also not meet top-seeded and nationally top-ranked North Carolina until the finals. If the Crimson prevails in its quarterfinal match, the squad will play either second-seeded Missouri-St. Louis or the winner of the Texas A&M-Cincinnati match in Saturday's semifinal.

Harvard finished third out of seven teams in the first-ever national intercollegiate national tournament last year in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This year's event is the first officially sanctioned AIAW tournament.