MGCCC earns No. 9 seed at NJCAA Tournament

PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast learned Tuesday it will head to the NJCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship seeded ninth. The Bulldogs, making their first national championship appearance in soccer, earned an automatic bid by winning the MACCC/Region 23 title in Raymond on Sunday.

The NJCAA released the seeding and matchups for the tournament which will see the Bulldogs in the same pool as No. 4 Georgia Military and No. 5 Parkland.

"It's kind of what we expected," Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. "Playing Georgia Military a second time, I think it's a bit of an advantage. Normally, you're going around searching for film, but we already have film. We can see what we did wrong and what we did well. There shouldn't be a lot of surprises that first game in Wichita."

Gulf Coast (11-5-2) will open the tournament at 6:30 p.m. Monday. The Bulldogs' second game of the season came against GMC (13-2). They lost 4-0 at Perk on Aug. 22. Georgia Military won the Atlantic District championship by beating Louisburg 4-2.

Gulf Coast will play Parkland (14-3-1) at 6;30 p.m. Tuesday. Handy doesn't know anything about Parkland, which got the Midwest/Central districts at-large bid.

The tournament will be hosted at the Stryker Complex on a pair of fields. The women's Division II tournament will be played at the same time. All games will be streamed at http://njcaa.org/network. Fans can purchase a day pass for $10 or tournament pass for $25.

There are four, three-team pools in the tournament. Round-robin pool play is Monday through Wednesday, with each team playing twice. The top-seed in each gets a day off between games.

The winner from each pool advances to the semifinals, which will be Friday, Nov. 19. The finals will be the following day.

"As a coach, you always want to coach at the highest level possible," Handy said. "You always want to continue playing, so it's an opportunity to prove ourselves on the national scene. It's an opportunity for our kids to play in front of coaches. It's important for our kids to get an opportunity to move on. It's another step in that, and we're excited about it."

NJCAA Division II Men's Soccer Tournament

Wichita, Kansas

Stryker Complex

Pool D

Monday, Nov. 15

No. 4 Georgia Military vs. No. 9 Gulf Coast, 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 16

No. 5 Parkland vs. No. 9 Gulf Coast, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 17

No. 4 Georgia Military vs. No. 5 Parkland, 6:30 p.m.

Semifinals

Friday, Nov. 19

Semifinal 1, 4 p.m.

Semifinal 2, 6:30 p.m.

Championship

Saturday, Nov. 20

Final, 4 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.