CHICAGO, ILL. – After a historic season, the St. Catherine University soccer team will participate in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The Wildcats are set to open the tournament at 11 a.m. against the University of Chicago Friday morning.

St. Kate's drew the top-seed in the 2018 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament after beating Gustavus Adolphus College in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championship to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. However, the Wildcats and Maroons aren't the only two teams competing in Chicago, Illinois this weekend. After St. Kate's and Chicago face off at 11 a.m., the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Hope College will face off at 1 p.m. on the Amos Alonzo Stagg field. If the Wildcats win, they will face the winner of that game at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Tickets will be $6 for adults and $3 for students/children. Kids under the age of five can get in the game for free. More information can be found at the NCAA Regional Website.

Fans who can't make the trip to Chicago can watch St. Kate's in a variety of ways. Both live stats and video will be available, and score updates can be found on St. Kate's official Twitter page (@stkateswildcats).

Here are the five things to know before the Wildcats and Maroons face off tomorrow morning:

1^st – This will be St. Kate's first appearance in the NCAA Soccer Tournament in program history. The Wildcats earned the MIAC's automatic bid to the tournament thanks to a 1-0 double overtime win in the conference championship game last weekend. Allie Bird (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) scored St. Kate's lone goal in the 101^st minute to clinch the win, and ultimately the tournament berth, for the Wildcats.

3^rd – St. Kate's soccer team is the third Wildcat program to appear in the NCAA Tournament in the 2016-17 calendar year and the first athletics team to qualify for the tournament in the 2017-18 academic year. Both St. Kate's golf and softball programs appeared in their respective tournaments in the spring of 2017. Both teams won their respective MIAC Playoff Championship.

No. 1 – The Wildcats will face the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament Friday afternoon in the University of Chicago. The Maroons dropped just one game during the 2017 season, but it was the last game of the season. Chicago lost to the No. 6 ranked team in the nation, the University of Washington-St. Louis, by a score of 2-1 in its final game of the regular season.

2^nd – St. Kate's soccer team will be the season team in school history to face the Maroons in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats softball team faced Chicago at the 2017 Decorah Regional, where they dropped the opening game 1-0. However, St. Kate's rebounded for a 5-2 win in the elimination game, propelling the team to the Regional Championship against Luther College.

7 – Seven Wildcats were honored by the MIAC on Thursday, including head coach Jesse Campos. Campos became the first coach in program history to earn the MIAC Coach of the Year honor, which he shared with Augsburg head coach Mike Navarre. In addition to Campos, sophomore Maddie Conners (Lake Elmo, Minn. / Hill-Murray) earned All-MIAC honors, while Bird, Shannon Hickey (Eden Prairie, Minn. / Visitation), Kaitlin Machovec (Woodbury, Minnn. / North St. Paul) and Jessica Perez-Adame (San Jacinto, Calif. / San Jacinto) were named All-Conference Honorable Mention. Brittany Kollman was the team's representative on the All-Sportsmanship team.