Sun Devil soccer earns NCAA Tournament bid

ASU will host Baylor in NCAA first round game on Friday at 7 p.m.

The NCAA today announced that the Arizona State women's soccer team was one of 64 teams to receive a bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament. The Sun Devils will host Baylor in a first-round game this Friday at 7 p.m. at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.

Tied for fourth place in the Pac-12 with Washington State, the Sun Devils (10-8-2, 6-4-1 Pac-12) received an at-large bid following a regular season in which they tied their highest finish in the league since 2004.

The Sun Devils will be making their sixth all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and their third in the last four years under sixth-year head coach Kevin Boyd.

After starting the season 1-4-1 and having a 6-8-1 record after 15 games, the Sun Devils concluded the regular season going unbeaten in their final five games (4-0-1). ASU went 6-2 in one-goal games this season, three of which came over the last four games of the season.

"We'd been talking for weeks, how do we make the playoffs? We have to do this, then we have to do this," Boyd explained. "We've really had a hard battle to get here and it's well earned. I don't think there's any way you could see that we didn't earn this. We did."

The Sun Devils are led by junior forward Devin Marshall and freshman forward Cali Farquharson, who tied for the team lead and finished the regular season tied for fifth in the Pac-12 in goals (9). The nine goals tied them for 10th on ASU's all-time list for most goals in a single season.

Tickets for Friday night's game will go on sale Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. and can be purchased in person or over the phone by contacting the Sun Devil ticket office at 480-727-0000. Ticket prices will be $7 for adults, $5 for juniors (under 18) and seniors (60 and over), $5 for ASU students (with ID) and $3 for groups of 15 or more.