By Official Florida FC
Florida State is undefeated and the unquestioned No. 1 seed in the 2021 NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The Seminoles (11-0) ran through the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning the regular season and tournament titles. Florida State has not played since beating North Carolina (12-1) in the tournament final in November; however, the Seminoles have been training.
In the time since Florida State played its last match, Seminoles captain Jaelin Howell earned a cap with the U.S. women’s national team. Meanwhile, freshman forward Jody Brown, who is tied for the team lead with five goals, has remained on the radar of Jamaica’s Reggae Girls.
Florida State will play either Elon or Milwaukee on May 1 at 3 p.m.
The tournament was delayed five months because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The field was clipped from 64 teams, as has been the case since 2001, to 48 teams. All 47 matches will be played in the state of North Carolina.
Florida State is among the two Sunshine State representatives in the field.
South Florida (9-0-2) won the American Athletic Conference Tournament for the third time in the last four years on April 17. The Bulls throttled Cincinnati 4-0 en route to their eighth clean sheet of the season.
Despite being undefeated, and ranked No. 15 in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll, the Bulls did not earn a first-round bye. South Florida will face Central Connecticut State (7-0-0) on April 27 at 3 p.m. in Greensboro.
The winner of that game would face Texas A&M on April 30.
Florda’s two representatives are among the six unbeatens in this year’s field. Georgetown (11-0-1), Sienna (6-0-2) and Furman (8-0-2) are the others.
