Women's
Well, well, well. Oral Roberts have romped to the top overall seed in the women's Summit League Championship, a position that was foreseen in their pre-season #1 seeding and the conference's best record in non-conference play. An aggregate table exists purely for this tournament's seeding and the Golden Eagles have outperformed everyone to secure a bye and a hosting berth for the semifinals.
South Dakota (Pod A #3) face Omaha (Pod B #2) also reflects preseason and non-conference predictions. The other seeds are a surprise. The projection of North Dakota v Kansas City based on non-conference play is instead South Dakota State (A #2) versus St Thomas (B#3), a big gut punch for the preseason #2 Jackrabbits. Their opponents were rated #8 in the preseason poll of 8 teams. Instead it is Kansas City Roos, who were preseason #5 who miss out on the postseason entirely.
Pre-season #6 seed North Dakota State began the season 0-3 and had a truly up-and-down season, but needing to win on the road at both South Dakota schools to ascend to the Pod A top spot, they gutted out two one-goal wins and will have a well-earned rest before traveling down to Tulsa for the semifinals against the winner of the Omaha - South Dakota match.
Men's
All eyes in KC are on the men, this season. The Preseason #1 seed also secured the #1 seed in the Summit League Championship on Halloween. With only six teams in the conference, no-one misses out but Omaha have outperformed expectations, ascending to the semifinal bye and #2 seed at the expense of #6 seed, Delaware Blue Hens. Otherwise, Massachusetts, Oral Roberts and St Thomas all occupy seedings roughly in line with the expectations of the preseason poll. With so few teams, the non-conference slate basically lasts all regular season, making it hard to evaluate the strength of the schools in a pure Summit context.
Schedule
Women's
Omaha v South Dakota - 2:30pm on Friday at Caniglia Field.
A potential trap game for a Mavs team with only a 2-2-6 (W-D-L) record at home this season, against a South Dakota team who kept things close in Pool A.
South Dakota State v St Thomas - 6pm on Friday at Fishback Soccer Park
Don't get us wrong, a St Thomas win on the road against the defending champions would be a massive shock.
Men's
Oral Roberts v St Thomas - 7pm on Friday at Case Soccer Complex
The Tommie men could actually spring a road surprise here.
Massachusetts v Delaware - 11am on Saturday at Rudd Field
What could more emblematic of the geographical mess that the Men's Summit League is in than an all Northeast matchup at 11am on a Saturday (So, 10am for observers in the Summit League offices or any fans of Omaha waiting for their opponents). Given how badly Delaware have fallen away, I'm gonna give this to the hosts.
Stay tuned to Northland Soccer Journal and our socials for full coverage of those quarterfinal matches and for another Summit Survey this time next week looking at the Semifinals and Finals for both genders.
