Piedmont College women's soccer set for NCAA tourney battle with Emory

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The Piedmont College women's soccer team learned of its first round opponent and destination for the NCAA National Tournament as the Lady Lions will make a return to Atlanta for a showdown with Emory University.

This is the second appearance in NCAA postseason play for Piedmont Head Coach Stephen Andrew and his Lady Lions in the last three seasons as those two years have featured a combined 34-5-3 overall record.

Emory (14-3-1) will be the regional host for the Lady Lions (17-2-2) who are joined by Lynchburg College (21-1) and Centre College (16-4-2), the two of which will face off in the remaining game of this four-team regional. The four programs have a combined 68-10-5 record in 2013 with Piedmont and Lynchburg earning automatic berths by virtue of a conference title while Emory and Centre earned at-large invitations.

The hosting Eagles will play Piedmont in an 11 a.m. start on Saturday, while Centre and Lynchburg will face each other in the second game of the day set for a 1:30 p.m. start. Both games will be played on Nov. 16 at the Woodruff Physical Education Center in Atlanta, Georgia with the winner of those two matches facing off the following Sunday at 1:30 p.m. for the right to move on to the Sweet 16.

Piedmont tied its NCAA era record for wins in a season taking victories in six of their last seven matches while posting 17 victories on the season. With a win on Saturday, PC could tie its all-time high for wins in a season with their 18th matching the 1997 team's total, a squad that finished ranked 19th in the nation. That season came prior to Piedmont's jump to Division III in 2003 as the Lady Lions become the fifth Piedmont athletic program to make multiple appearances in the NCAA National Tournament in the 11th year PC has been a full-fledged member NCAA Division III member.

The Lady Lions are led by one of the nation's brightest young coaches in Head Coach Stephen Andrew who is 87-28-4 since taking over the program prior to the 2008 season representing a .757 winning percentage, some of the best numbers in the nation in that time frame. Now with two conference titles to his name having taken the Great South Athletic Conference Tournament Championship in the school's final year as a member of that conference (2011), Andrew's Lady Lions will use their USA South Athletic Conference Tournament Championship and the league's automatic postseason berth to take a second trip to the NCAA National Tournament in three seasons.

Live stats of the match will be provided as will live video for fans who cannot make it down to the Woodruff Center. Stay tuned to PiedmontLions.com for more details to follow in the coming days leading up to the start of the 2013 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer National Tournament.