TRAFFORD, Pa. — Behind a 7-0-3 league record through the regular season, Franciscan University secured the top seed and home-field advantage through the 2024 Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Men’s Soccer Championship Tournament. The conference announced the tournament field late Wednesday night.

The six-team tournament will start with quarterfinal matches on Saturday, Nov. 2. The tournament winner will receive the conference’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.

Admission to all PAC Championship Tournament matches is $5 for adults and $2 for students, with students at PAC host institutions admitted for free with valid identification.

The Barons claimed the top spot for the conference tournament off the strength of an 11-match unbeaten streak. The only loss suffered by Franciscan, who compiled an 11-1-5 overall record, came on Sept. 18 by a 3-2 score at Mount Union. Since then, the Barons have outscored their opponents 36-8 and their only non-victories were draws with Chatham (0-0), Waynesburg (1-1) and a 2-2 tie at Geneva in the regular season finale. Needing at least a draw to earn the top seed, the Barons scored the tying goal with 11 seconds to play to gain the necessary point.

Franciscan is aiming for its second PAC title after capturing the crown in 2022. The Barons also reached the title match in 2021, but were denied a third straight appearance in the final last year when they were upset by Grove City in the semifinals.

As the top two seeds, Franciscan and No. 2 Geneva College earn quarterfinal byes. The Golden Tornadoes, the defending PAC champions, enter as the second seed despite not losing a match in the regular season. Geneva posted a 12-0-5 overall record with a 6-0-4 mark against PAC foes and have alternated wins and ties over the last six matches.

Geneva’s title last year, punctuated by a 1-0 shutout over Grove City College in the final, was their second PAC championship and first since 2016. The Golden Tornadoes are trying to become the first PAC team to repeat since Washington and Jefferson College won in 2019 and the 2021 spring season after Covid postponed the 2020 fall season.

A pair of afternoon quarterfinal matches will begin Tournament play on Saturday. Grove City (10-3-3, 7-2-1 PAC) claimed the No. 3 seed and will host sixth-seeded WandJ (7-10-1, 4-5-1 PAC) Saturday at 2 pm. Grove City, who had won three in a row before a 1-1 draw with Waynesburg in the regular season finale, has claimed a pair of PAC trophies and is making its 17th consecutive trip to the league’s championship tournament. W&J, who needed a 1-0 win over Westminster in the regular season finale to clinch a berth, is back in the postseason for the first time since their 2021 title. The Presidents have five PAC championships in their program history.

The Wolverines and Presidents match on Saturday will come one week after their Oct. 26th regular season meeting, which was won by Grove City 2-0 on WandJ’s home field.

The other quarterfinal match will kickoff at 3 pm Saturday, with No. 4 Allegheny College (6-10-3, 5-3-2 PAC) hosting No. 5 Chatham University (7-5-6, 4-2-4 PAC). After scoring just nine goals in their first 13 matches, Allegheny’s offense is clicking coming into the tournament, as the Gators scored 18 goals while going 5-1 to close the regular season. Making their third PAC Tournament appearance, Chatham finished the regular season on a small roll as well, going 2-0-1, with the draw being a 1-1 tie at Geneva.

For Allegheny, who has won five PAC titles, with the last coming in 1978, and Chatham, who is seeking their first conference championship, this is a rematch of their first PAC game of the season. That finished in a 1-1 tie on Sept. 25th in Pittsburgh.

The quarterfinal winners will move on to play Nov. 6th in the semifinals, with both matches kicking off at 7 pm that night. Franciscan will host the winner from the Allegheny/Chatham match-up and the victor from the Grove City/WandJ quarterfinal will travel to Beaver Falls to take on Geneva.

The championship match, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9th, will be hosted by the highest remaining seed following next Wednesday’s semifinals. Information on the title match will be announced after the completion of the semifinal round.

Selections for the 64-team Division III Championship will be announced, Nov. 11. First and second round matchups are scheduled for, Nov. 16-17.