UIC, the back-to-back Horizon League Tournament Champions, learned its NCAA destiny early Monday afternoon. Joined by a packed house at Ph.D Pub, the team and coaching staff saw their name pop up opposite Wisconsin in the bracket. The first round game between the Flames and Badgers will take place Thursday at 7:00 pm in Madison, Wisc.
The teams played an exhibition match at Flames Field before the season began in earnest. UIC took a 1-0 decision back on August 19.
Wisconsin head coach John Trask was the Flames' coach for five years from 2005-2009 and led UIC to three NCAA tournaments. He brought current Flames coach
Sean Phillips to campus as an assistant, and was also responsible for the hiring of
Aleksey Korol and
Minos Vlamakis, both current assistants on Phillips' staff.
"We look forward to playing at Wisconsin on Thursday. Our programs know each other very well and have a tremendous amount of respect for each other," Phillips said. "I anticipate a very good soccer game."
This will be the seventh appearance in the NCAA tournament for UIC.
Stay tuned to UICFlames.com this week for much more pregame coverage and all the results from Thursday's match.
Below, see the crowd's reaction to the NCAA bracket announcement, and some thoughts from Horizon League Tournament MVP
Joel Leon on the matchup.
