For women's soccer, La Salle is first up in NCAA Tournament

Brian Pensky understands human nature. The Terrapins women's soccer coach is a victim of it himself.

As the NCAA Tournament bracket was unveiled last night, he found his head swimming with possible matchups in the coming weeks. After Friday, the teams his unseeded Terps could face read like a laundry list of the top programs in the country: Notre Dame, the tournament's defending champion; No. 4 seed Boston College, a squad that handed the Terps a heartbreaking overtime loss on Sept. 22; No. 2 seed Oklahoma State, a team that lost its first game of the season Sunday with nine seconds left; and even No. 1 seed Stanford, whose lone blemish on its 19-0-1 overall record came against the Terps in late August.

Pensky was quick yesterday to call his team's bracket the "toughest in the country." But he knows the Terps must first face La Salle, the Atlantic 10 regular-season champion, on Friday at Ludwig Field before they can consider the other possibilities that loom.

"Right now, I wouldn't really use the word terrified, [but] we're very focused and very concerned about La Salle because we can't think about what's beyond La Salle seriously until you've taken care of business in the first round," Pensky said.

The Explorers are one of many conference champions in the Terps' bracket, which also has representatives from the Big Sky (Montana), SEC (South Carolina), MAAC (Marist), WAC (Utah State) and SWAC (Arkansas-Pine Bluff).

La Salle, although currently unranked by the coaches poll, was undefeated until last Friday, when it fell to Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals. The team has allowed only seven goals in 19 games this year and boasts two players, forward Kelsey Haycook and midfielder Renee Washington, who have combined for 26 goals so far this year.

"We're going to have our hands full on Friday night," Pensky said. "I'm hoping we'll have a little bit of a home-field advantage and some people will come out, support us and hopefully help us get to the second round."

The Terps are one of a record nine ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament. Florida State, Duke and Wake Forest all earned No. 1 seeds. Virginia, North Carolina and Boston College were also seeded Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Miami and Virginia Tech join the Terps as unseeded ACC teams.

The 6 p.m. start time on Friday means the Terps and La Salle will be the first of the 64 teams to start play. Pensky said he was hoping for a game early in the weekend when the Terps submitted their bid to host the tournament.

"We didn't play this weekend, so our kids are just champing at the bit to play a game," Pensky said. "I know they are all very, very happy that we don't have to wait until Saturday or Sunday to play."

The Terps, who haven't played since their Oct. 30 loss at Virginia in the ACC Tournament, will have had an 11-day layoff in between games.

"We want to play, and better yet, you see that a full week off really does a lot for you," midfielder Amy O'Sullivan said. "It helps your whole team prepare. It helps everything. If we can show up, play the game, get a result and have that full week again, it only benefits us more."

Before the Terps' Oct. 27 game at Ludwig Field against North Carolina, it seemed the Terps' seniors were flirting with playing perhaps their final game in College Park. But after the overtime win and selection in the NCAA Tournament, the team has another chance to play at the venue where it has a 6-1-3 record this season.

"I think it's awesome as a senior to hear that we're going to get to play home, under the lights, on Friday night," O'Sullivan said. "We've been preparing the past week, and we're just ready."

dgallen@umdbk.com