UPDATED: Nov. 5, 2017 at 11:27 p.m.

Syracuse has not missed the NCAA tournament since head coach Ange Bradley’s first year in charge, 2007. While it wasn’t locked in until Sunday night, the Orange will continue that streak, making its 10th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

SU (12-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) will take on No. 3 overall seed Michigan (19-2, 8-0 Big Ten) in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“We are thankful  to have this opportunity to start a new season,” Ange Bradley said in a statement to The Daily Orange. “We are very excited and looking forward to traveling back to Michigan. Ann Arbor is a very special place for us.”

In Fall 2015, the Orange won the school’s first women’s national championship in Ann Arbor.

Syracuse lost last Thursday in the first round of the ACC tournament to Louisville, 3-2. The Orange had entered that game 14th in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), an indicator of a team’s worthiness of making the tournament. The loss presumably would have dropped SU to a lower spot in the RPI. 18 teams are selected between automatic qualifying conference winners and at-large bids, meaning Syracuse began Sunday night’s selection show in a precarious position, but ended it in a familiar one.

While SU had six losses, all six came by just one goal, including three ACC losses that came in the altered 7-on-7 overtime period. Five of the six losses were to conference opponents, although one was last Thursday’s loss to Louisville in the conference tournament.

The only out-of-conference loss came to Penn, 3-2, on Oct. 22. SU was without one of its top players. In the 25 years of SU field hockey’s Division I existence prior to Bradley’s tenure, the Orange had made the NCAA tournament on three occasions. Since Bradley took over, SU has gone to 10 out of 11.

Six of the seven teams in the ACC made the tournament. The only team to miss out from the conference is Boston College.

Connecticut, the only undefeated team in Division I at 19-0, is the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed.

The first two rounds of Syracuse’s portion of the bracket will take place at Michigan’s Ocker Field. If SU wins in the first round, it will play the winner of Louisville and Northwestern. A matchup with Louisville would be the third meeting between the schools this season, the first two of which were won by the Cardinals.

Syracuse began the season with seven-straight shutouts. In its eighth contest, the Orange lost the shutout and winning streaks, losing to then-No. 16 Wake Forest, 2-1, in overtime. SU lost its next two conference games as well – with two non-conference wins interspersed – falling to then-No. 7 North Carolina and then-No. 12 Louisville, both in overtime as well. An upset of then-No. 2 Duke on the road gave Syracuse its biggest victory – by rank – of the season. Closing the season with three losses in five games – to Penn, then-No. 4 Virginia and No. 10 Louisville in the ACC Tournament – didn’t prevent the Orange from sneaking into the tournament.

Published on November 5, 2017 at 10:33 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3