Kansas University’s soccer players were dressed in practice gear Monday during their NCAA Tournament selection show watch party.

The concern wasn’t if the No. 16 Jayhawks would get in, but rather when and whom they would play. After finishing third in the Big 12 Conference, they figured to be a shoo-in.

That was the case, as KU earned the No. 13 overall seed in the tournament and a pairing against Illinois State at 4 p.m. Friday in Columbia, Mo., at the Audrey J. Walton Soccer Complex.

Missouri and Eastern Illinois will play in the other first-round game at 7 p.m. The winners will play at 1 p.m. Sunday.

“I don’t think I ever thought about not practicing today,” junior forward Monica Brothers said. “I just expected to be out here and ready to go.”

Still, senior defender Maggie Mason admitted there were last-minute jitters as the bracket was unveiled.

“My stomach sunk for a second because I saw all these Big 12 teams going,” she said. “I thought, ‘They can’t take everybody,’ but they did.”

In fact, the Big 12 led all conferences with eight teams in the field of 64, while the Atlantic Coast Conference was second with seven. Previously, the Big 12’s record was four teams.

Only the top 16 teams in the tournament are seeded. Those schools usually play host to first- and second-round games, but KU’s SuperTarget Field does not meet NCAA requirements to be a host site.

Kansas University's soccer team reacts after learning it had landed a berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks watched the selection show Monday in the press box at Memorial Stadium.

That privilege instead falls to Big 12 rival Mizzou. The Tigers (11-10-1) were the eighth seed in last week’s Big 12 tournament, but MU stunned top-seeded Colorado and 22nd-ranked Nebraska before falling to Oklahoma State in double overtime in the finals.

KU coach Mark Francis said he had no qualms about playing on the Tigers’ turf.

“The good thing is we’ve already played there this year and we’ve already won there this year,” he said, recalling Kansas’ 2-0 win against Missouri last month, “so we’re going somewhere that we’ve been successful already.”

Francis said he knew little about Illinois State, other than that the Redbirds (11-5-3) won the Missouri Valley Conference.

“We’ve got a video tape coming on them and stuff like that,” Francis said. “We’ve got some scouting reports coming on them, so we’ll know as much about them as we do about anybody else we play before we play them.”

6Sports video: Soccer squad headed to NCAAs

Illinois State advanced to the tournament by defeating Creighton in a shootout Sunday at the Missouri Valley tournament. After 110 minutes of scoreless play, Illinois State made five kicks to Creighton’s four in the shootout.

“I really like the bracket we’re in and how all of the teams were ranked,” ISU coach Pete Kowall said. “If we go out and play like we did this weekend, I think we’ll fare pretty well.”