UK earns No. 3 overall seed in soccer’s College Cup. See how the bracket shapes up.

After completing its best regular season in program history, the Kentucky men’s soccer team earned a No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA College Cup, making the Cats a tourney host and giving them a bye in the 48-team tournament.

On Sunday, the Cats will face the winner of a Thursday match between two at-large teams, Portland (11-3-3) and UCLA (10-8-0), to be played in Portland, Ore. Portland entered the final week of the season ranked 15th. If UK wins, it could set up a potential quarterfinal match with No. 14 seed Central Florida.

Tickets to UK’s 4 p.m. game Sunday went on sale just after the announcement at UKAthleticsTix.com.

Kentucky (17-1-1) comes in on a seven-game win streak that included wins over the College Cup’s No. 2 and No. 4 seeds in Big Ten champion Indiana and ACC champion Louisville, respectively.

Louisville, ranked No. 10 heading into the ACC Tournament last week, shocked No. 1 Wake Forest in the semifinals and then upset No. 4 North Carolina in the finals to supplant the Tar Heels as the No. 4 seed in the College Cup.

Kentucky’s resume also included two victories over No. 14 Charlotte capped by Sunday’s 1-0 win in the Conference USA Tournament championship.

This marks Kentucky’s fifth NCAA appearance in Coach Johan Cedergren’s seven years at UK. He was recently named C-USA Coach of the Year for the third time. Last season, the Cats missed the College Cup one year after earning its first-ever top-16 seed.

This year’s field includes 24 conference champions plus 24 at-large berths. This was UK’s first season to earn an automatic conference bid. It also won the C-USA regular-season title.

Sunday

UCLA or Portland at Kentucky

What: NCAA Tournament round-of-32 match

When: 4 p.m.

Where: UK’s Bell Soccer Complex

This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 2:15 PM.