NCAA BRACKET

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Upon Monday's release of the 2017 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship bracket, the Kenyon College Lords learned they will make the short trip to Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio to take on the Transylvania University Pioneers in a neutral-site, first-round game.

Kenyon (15-2-3) was one of 20 at-large teams that earned a berth into the tournament. Transylvania (17-1-0), which won the Heartland Conference Athletic Conference (HCAC) tournament, was one of 42 teams to collect an automatic bid.

The first-round game will take place Saturday at Memorial Stadium with a start time yet to be determined. The winner of the game will advance to Sunday's second round to face the winner of the game between host Otterbein and Medaille College. Otterbein (17-2-0) won the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament, while Medaille (14-5-1) was crowned tournament champion of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

The NCAA tournament appearance will be the Lords' fifth straight and 14th overall. They won the 2017 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular-season title with a perfect 9-0-0 record, but missed out on capturing a fourth-straight conference tournament title with a 3-2 penalty-kick shootout loss to Ohio Wesleyan University. Prior to that result, the Kenyon men were ranked No. 9 in the latest United Soccer Coaches national poll and ranked No. 3 in the NCAA's Great Lakes regional poll.

Transylvania took the HCAC regular-season title with an 8-1-0 conference mark. The Pioneers then claimed their spot in the NCAA bracket by winning the HCAC tournament championship game, 2-1, in double-overtime against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The Pioneers, currently unranked, are making their eighth NCAA tournament appearance, but first since 2012.

Kenyon and Transylvania did not face each other this season, but they did share common opponents in Centre and Thomas More colleges. The Pioneers defeated both those teams, while the Lords defeated Centre and tied Thomas More.

Kenyon and Transylvania have met just twice on the soccer pitch. In 2002, the Pioneers posted a 1-0 win in the season opener and then, in 2009, the Lords evened the score with a 1-0 overtime win.