Aggie men open NCAA soccer playoff at Univ. of San Diego on Thursday

UCD-USD winner will play at No. 10 Duke on Sunday

UC Davis will travel to play the University of San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Division I men's soccer championships Thursday at 7 p.m. at Torero Stadium on the USD campus.

The Aggies claimed the Big West Conference's automatic bid with a 2-0 win over UC Santa Barbara last Friday in the championship game of the league tournament.

Aggies hoist Big West championship trophy

The NCAA awarded bids to 22 automatic qualifiers as league champions and also selected 26 at-large participants.

Santa Barbara earned an at-large bid and will meet UCLA in the opening round.

San Diego won the West Coast Conference title with a 7-1 record and is an impressive 13-2-2 overall.

The Aggies haven't lost in over a month, posting a 6-0-1 mark down the stretch that included three consecutive wins in the conference tournament.

While the Toreros and Aggies did not meet in the regular season, USD did have three games against Big West opponents, defeating UC San Diego, 2-1, and UC Irvine, 1-0, while losing to Cal State Fullerton, 2-0.

The top 16 seeds earned first-round byes and each will host a winner from the 16 first-round games.

The Aggie-USD winner advances to play No. 10 Duke on Sunday in Durham, North Carolina.

The College Cup, featuring the four semifinalists from the single-elimination tournament, will be held Dec. 13-16 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

Clemson has won two of the last three national championships, but is the No. 9 seed this time around behind No. 1 Ohio State.

Stanford, the No. 16 seed, defeated the Aggies, 1-0, in non-conference action in September. Stanford won three straight national titles from 2017-2019.

The Aggies defeated at-large selection Oregon State, 2-1, also in September.

Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com