CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – The 2013 NCAA Division I Tournament kicks off in less than two-weeks, and a few Grande Sports Academy graduates will experience their first taste of single elimination tournament play as they enter their respective conference tournaments.
Ricardo Velazco, Andrew Brody and Jon Zabasajja play for programs in the American Athletic Conference, which starts their tournament on Friday night. Velazco and Brody scored a combined 10 goals and notched 17 assists for the #1 seeded Louisville Cardinals while Zabasajja came on strong for #7 seeded SMU at the end of the season.
Salazar starts conference play with #2 seeded Elon on Saturday in the Southern Conference.
Eleven other GSA graduates, who may qualify for their conference tournaments, begin play next week: South Carolina (Ive Burnett), Virginia (Riggs Lennon, Jordan Allen), Clemson (Phanuel Kavita), Denver (Brian Hoyt), Air Force (AJ Esparza, Joey Shepshock), Seattle U (Brandon Marquez), UCI (Elliot Farmer), Dayton (Brian Bates) and Liberty (Luis Chavez)
Conference tournament schedules for Velazco, Brody, Zabasajja and Salazar are posted below. The conference finals will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
GSA will post the schedules for the other conferences once they are released.
See how over 50 GSA graduates did in collegiate play this past week here.
American Athletic Conference
| First Round – Friday, Nov. 8 (Campus Sites) | ||
| FR1 | 12:00 PM | #8 Rutgers vs. #9 Cincinnati (Played at #1 Louisville) |
| Second Round – Saturday, Nov. 9 (Campus Sites) | ||
| Q1 | 5:00 PM | #1 Louisville (Ricardo Velazco, Andrew Brody) vs. FR1 Winner |
| Q2 | 11:00 AM | #4 Temple vs. #5 USF |
| Q3 | 12:30 PM | #3 UCF vs. #6 Memphis |
| Q4 | 3:00 PM | #2 UConn vs. #7 SMU (Jon Zabasajja) |
| Semfinals – Friday, Nov. 15 – Toyota Stadium (TheAmerican.org) | ||
| S1 | 4pm/6:30 PM | Q1 Winner vs. Q2 Winner |
| S2 | 4pm/6:30 PM | Q3 Winner vs. Q4 Winner |
| Final – Sunday, Nov. 17 – Toyota Stadium (ESPN3) | ||
| S1 | 11:00 AM | S1 Winner vs. S2 Winner |
Southern Conference
| Quarterfianls – Saturday, Nov. 9 (Campus Sites) | LIVE VIDEO | ||
| Q1 | 5:30 PM | #5 Davidson vs. #4 Furman | FurmanPaladins.com |
| Q2 | 5:00 PM | #7 ASU vs. #2 Elon (Miggy Salazar) | ElonPhoenix.com |
| Q3 | 5:00 PM | #6 Georgia Southern vs. #3 UNCG | UNCGSpartans.com |
| Semfinals – Friday, Nov. 15 – Eugene Stone Soccer Stadium | |||
| S1 | 3:30 PM | #1 Wofford vs. Q1 Winner | SoConTV |
| S2 | 6:00 PM | Q2 Winner vs. Q3 Winner | SoConTV |
| Final – Sunday, Nov. 17 – Eugene Stone Soccer Stadium (ESPN3) | |||
| F1 | 11:00 AM | S1 Winner vs. S2 Winner | ESPN3 |