Maryland men's soccer gets four seed in NCAA Tourney

On October 5, 2014, the Maryland men's soccer team had a record of 3-5-2 and the dream of a possible third consecutive trip to the College Cup looked to be fading quickly. However, that game served as what Terrapins head coach Sasho Cirovski called a "galvanizing moment." The Terps have not lost since and are unbeaten in 11 consecutive games. That streak allowed them to claim both the Big Ten Championship and B1G Tournament Championship and earned them the number four seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

The Terps are one of six Big Ten teams in the field of 48 three of whom earned first round byes. The ACC led all conferences with seven teams in the field and five teams seeded in the top sixteen. The PAC-12 placed five teams in the field.

Defending champion Notre Dame claimed the top overall seed despite their shootout loss to Clemson in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Michigan State was the highest seeded B1G squad picking up the number three spot. As the number two overall seed, UCLA rounds out the top four.

The Terps are making their 32nd trip to the tourney and are one of six teams in the 2014 field who have made at least 30 NCAA Tournament appearances. The others are St. Louis (48), UCLA (42), Indiana (39), Virginia (36), and Penn State also making their 32nd appearance. Penn State is the only one in this group who has not won a national championship. The other five have combined for 31 titles with St. Louis leading the way with ten. However, the Billikens have not won a title since 1973.

Wake Forest will host UMBC in a first round game and the winner of that contest will travel to College Park to face the Terrapins. In their final ACC season, the Terps hosted Wake Forest and dropped a 4-3 decision to the Demon Deacons. Maryland and UMBC faced off earlier this season with the Retrievers leaving Ludwig Field with a 0-0 tie.

In addition to UMBC, three other teams on Maryland's non-conference schedule reached the tournament. Louisville, Coastal Carolina, and Hartwick all received bids with Louisville picking up the 13th seed making them a possible Sweet Sixteen match-up for Maryland.

You can see the complete bracket here.