The women's soccer team will appear in the 2010 NCAA Soccer Tournament.
This will be the ninth total tournament appearance and fifth consecutive year the team will have appeared in the postseason, a school record.
"We were really excited to see our name come up on the board," said coach Karen Hoppa. "We definitely knew we were on the bubble.
"We felt like we had done enough to get in the NCAA Tournament, but you just never know for sure until your name comes up in the selection show. We were all very excited."
Auburn was named an at-large team in the tournament after being eliminated from the SEC Tournament, losing to Georgia 2-1.
Hoppa attributes the selection to Auburn beating Florida State, then No. 5 in the country, as well as Florida, then No. 6 nationally.
"In soccer, they only seed 16 teams, and the rest is paired up regionally," Hoppa said. "So the fact that we had beaten two seeded teams really carried a lot of weight to get us in. We had a couple of good wins right there at the end of the season.
"Beating Georgia, then beating Alabama to win the SEC West was a major accomplishment for us as well."
Nationally recognized players also contributed to Auburn's selection.
Among these is junior defender and team captain Sammy Towne, named second-team All-SEC.
"We were all biting our nails," Towne said. "Of all the years I have been here, I think this is the closest we were to sitting on the fence. We are all excited to be one of the 64 teams that gets to practice today."
Named first-team All-SEC were junior defender Julie King and junior midfielder Katy Frierson.
"We are very lucky to be in this position," Frierson said. "We were very nervous coming into the selection show.
"When we saw our name up there, it was a huge reward. It's a testament to how great of a season we have had."
The tournament will be in Tallahassee, Fla., where the team previously participated in postseason play in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2009. The team's record there is 2-4-0.
Stanford (18-0-2) was awarded the No. 1 spot, while Florida State (13-5-1) is No. 2, and Marquette (15-4-2) is No. 3.
Auburn will play South Florida, the other at-large selection, at 6 p.m. Friday.
The other selections in Auburn's region are Florida State and Middle Tennessee State. Whoever wins the match between those two teams will go on to play Auburn in the next round of the tournament.
Though her team has already been selected, Hoppa said there's need to improve, particularly in ball possession.
"I think you've always got to improve, especially in tournament time," Hoppa said. "We've got to play much better in possession than we did in the SEC Tournament. We've got to do a better job of finishing opportunities. That's something--we've had a lot of scoring chances, but we haven't actually scored the goals, so that's something that's going to have to be better in the NCAAs."
Still, Hoppa said the team's selection is an honor, both because of the now-broken school postseason record and the distinction of being picked among other qualified teams.
"It never gets old," Hoppa said of the selection. "You play all year to be able to have an opportunity to play in the postseason. Only 64 teams out of 300-some women's soccer teams get to practice today, and we are excited to be one of them."
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