With the first round of the NAIA Men’s Soccer Championship completed yesterday, there will be some very familiar faces playing in the second round today (Saturday, Nov. 20) of the single elimination tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The five top seeds made it through including Mobile, Lindsey Wilson, University of Illiniois at Springfield, and Life. Also going through from the same strong area of the country which runs more or less from the Chicago area south-southeast towards Mobile was Birmingham-Southern, seeded 3rd, and Harris-Stowe State (Mo.) seeded 7th.

All these teams played at least one of the others during the regular season and in some cases, like Mobile and Life, have seen each other as many as three times.

The two "outsiders" who made it through were #8 Roberts Wesleyan (N.Y.) and #11 seed St. Gregory's of Oklahoma.

Of the top half of the 16 seeds, #6 Mount Senario did not make it past #11 St. Gregory's. That is about the only real surprise of the tournament thus far. Those who made it through outscored their opponents 17-3 and combined for 5 shutouts in 8 games. All the higher seeds had multi-goal games with Harris-Stowe, St. Gregory's, and Roberts Wesleyan winning by a single goal.

Both West Coast teams, Fresno Pacific and Concordia (Ore.), were knocked out as were two East Coast teams, Green Mountain (Vt.) and Nova Southeastern (Fla.). If you stretch the point a bit the other four teams knocked out were from the Midwest: Dominican (Ill.), Bethel (Ind.), Newman (Ks.), and Mt. Senario (Wisc.).

As for today's games, the toughest has got to be considered Life vs University of Illinois at Springfield. It pits the 5th seed against the 4th seed but what is more significant is the fact that earlier in the year Life was whipped 4-1 by UIS on the road in a game that could not be labeled a "friendly" by any stretch.

Also, at last year's championship, UIS defeated Life after having suffered a huge loss on the road to them. So, UIS knows exactly the attitude Life will be coming at them with. The revenge factor will be huge in this game. Huge.

The other three matches will be straight forward with teams that have not seen much, if anything, of the other.

Game 2: Number 1 seed Mobile vs #8 seed Roberts Wesleyan. On paper it looks like a no-brainer. Wesleyan was ranked 25th in the nation in the last poll. Mobile, 1st. Do the words "Christians and lions" ring a bell?

Game 3: Seed #2, Lindsey Wilson meets Harris-Stowe State, seeded 7th. Lindsey Wilson has won three national titles in last four years. Although ranked well this year, the men from the "Show Me" state will get just that...shown the door.

Game 4: Birmingham-Southern vs St. Gregory's. Third seeded team meets 11th seed. Don't believe that even gives an accurate enough picture. Birmingham-Southern plays with the big boys listed above on a regular basis during the season and in the past two years at the national tournament as host. St. Gregory's is probably too nice a bunch of boys to survive this one.

The only point in question at this time is the outcome of the first game of the day: Life vs UIS. Too close to call. Depends on who comes out onto the field most determined to send the other guys home early. Both teams have shown that they can go either way this year.

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