The Bulldogs open NCAA Tournament play Thursday night, hosting Lipscomb in a first-round match at the Sellick Bowl in Indianapolis. The 7 p.m. match will air live on the Butler Bulldogs Facebook page.

The winner of Thursday's match will travel to VCU for a Sunday contest with No. 16 seed VCU, which received a first-round bye.

The Bulldogs received the eighth NCAA Tournament berth in program history and the second of the at-large variety. It is also Butler's second consecutive appearance under head coach Paul Snape.

Butler is 12-4-2 overall and finished the BIG EAST regular season with an 8-1 record. Lipscomb has an overall record of 11-7-2. After going 2-4 in the ASUN's regular season, the team made a run to the tournament championship and the automatic bid. This is the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Lipscomb.

Butler is 2-6-1 in NCAA Tournament matches, including SIUE advancing in a shootout in the second round of the 2016 tournament which is officially a draw.
This will be the first meeting between Butler and Lipscomb.

Butler and Lipscomb have three common opponents on their respective 2017 schedules: Evansville, SIUE and South Florida. Both teams defeated Evansville, while Butler beat South Florida and lost to SIUE. The Bisons lost to South Florida but topped SIUE.

Butler, which captured the 2017 BIG EAST regular season title, was well-represented as the conference announced its regular season awards and all-conference teams Nov. 3.

Redshirt senior Eric Dick was selected as the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year, while sophomore Brandon Guhl was named Co-Offensive Player of the Year. Head coach Paul Snape and his staff earned Coaching Staff of the Year.

Dick and Guhl were joined on the All-BIG EAST First Team by sophomore midfielder Lewis Suddick. Junior defender Joe Moulden was voted on to the All-BIG EAST Second Team.

All-BIG EAST Teams and major awards are voted on by the league's head coaches, who are not permitted to vote for their own players. All-BIG EAST First and Second Teams are comprised of three forwards, three midfielders, three defenders, one goalkeeper and one at-large selection. The BIG EAST All-Freshman Team recognizes the top-11 freshman vote earners.

Dick is tied for the BIG EAST lead with eight shutouts. The Butler captain is among the BIG EAST leaders in goals against average (0.90, third), save percentage (.832, second), and saves per game (4.65, first). Dick has been named the conference's goalkeeper of the week four times in 2017. Previously, Dick was voted to the 2015 All-BIG EAST Second Team. Dick was the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

Guhl, in his first season with the Bulldogs after transferring from SMU, is second in the BIG EAST with 10 goals in Butler's 18 matches. His 24 points are also second in the conference. He has three game-winning goals so far in 2017. Guhl shared Co-Offensive Player of the Year accolades with Creighton's Ricky Lopez-Espin.

Suddick is second in the BIG EAST with eight assists, despite missing three matches. He added five goals for 18 points. His five goals included a BIG EAST-best four game-winners. Twice in 2017, Suddick has received the conference's weekly offensive award. A season ago, Suddick was selected to the BIG EAST All-Newcomer Team.

Moulden anchored a Butler back line that has allowed only 19 goals in 18 contests this season. That includes eight shutouts. The junior also scored the first goal of his Butler career in the Bulldogs' 2-1 win at Marquette Oct. 28, which clinched the BIG EAST regular season title for the Bulldogs. He added a second goal in the BIG EAST semifinals as Butler erased a 2-0 deficit in the final 20 minutes of regulation before Xavier advanced in a shootout.

Butler is 7-1-2 at the Sellick Bowl in 2017.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 14 in the final RPI rankings released by the NCAA Monday, Nov. 13. Butler has wins over seven top-100 RPI opponents this season (in addition to the tie against Indiana, which is No. 4 in the final RPI): San Francisco (No. 43), South Florida (No. 44), Xavier (No. 48), Creighton (No. 57), St. John's (No. 67), Evansville (No. 75), and UIC (No. 77). Butler's four losses on the season include Louisville (No. 5), Western Michigan (No. 8), and Georgetown (No. 19).
 
The Bulldogs are ranked No. 19 in this week's United Soccer Coaches poll. Butler is currently ranked in all national polls: No. 14 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll and No. 16 by College Soccer News.

Butler's 2-1 win at Marquette Oct. 28 included the first goal allowed by the Bulldogs in 480:58 of game action, a stretch that dates back to an Oct. 10 loss at SIUE. Butler posted four shutouts between the SIUE and Marquette matches.

Those four shutouts include a 0-0 tie against (then) No. 1 Indiana on Oct. 18. That in-state match was played in front of 6,105 fans, the largest crowd in Butler men's soccer history and the biggest gathering since the Sellick Bowl was renovated in 2010. The previous record was 5,029 for the 2013 match against Indiana.

The double-overtime result against the top-ranked Hoosiers was the Bulldogs' first tie of the season as they had previously won all four of their overtime contests. It was the fifth straight match-up between the in-state rivals to go to overtime.

Butler posted shutouts in five of its nine BIG EAST matches with Dick in goal for each of those contests.

Dick has orchestrated shutouts in eight matches this season. For his efforts, Dick has been named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week four times this season. Dick earned a spot on this week's College Soccer News Team of the Week Oct. 30 after posting a shutout at Seton Hall and making nine saves in the 2-1 win over Marquette. Dick has 27 career shutouts, which is the best mark in Butler program history.

Suddick was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 30. It was his second time earning the weekly honor this season. He also earned a spot on Top Drawer Soccer's National Team of the Week. Suddick played a role in three of Butler's four goals that week. Suddick scored the game-winner at Seton Hall. Suddick assisted on both of Butler's goals at Marquette, serving up a free kick that Moulden headed in and finding Guhl up the right side for the team's second goal 40 seconds later.

Suddick was named the No. 84 player nationally in a midseason list authored by Top Drawer Soccer. Suddick has missed three matches on the season. Butler is 11-2-2 in Suddick's 15 matches. In those 11 wins, Suddick has scored four game-winners and assisted on the game-winner in five of the other seven matches.

With the two goals against Creighton (in addition to an assist on Joel Harvey's game-winner earlier in the week in the 1-0 win over Evansville), Guhl was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and earned spots on the national teams of the week for College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer Sept. 18. Guhl joined Jared Timmer (Aug. 28) and Suddick (now twice) as Butler players have been selected for the conference's offensive weekly award. Additionally, Leonard was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 23 after transitioning to the back line for shutouts against Indiana and Villanova. Kieran Geldenhuys was named to the Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week on Oct. 23 as well.

Butler's 12 wins have featured seven different Bulldogs with the game-winner (Suddick – four times, Guhl – three times, Alex Lehtinen, Harvey, Timmer, Geldenhuys, and Leonard). Isaac Galliford is third on the team in points with 12 (three goals and six assists).

The Bulldogs trailed 2-0 in the match with Creighton Sept. 16 before two goals from Guhl in the final 15 minutes of regulation tied the contest. Less than three minutes into overtime, Lehtinen headed in the game-winner off a Suddick corner kick. It was the first goal of Lehtinen's Butler career.
  
The win over Creighton was a rematch of the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship game that Butler won, 2-1, in Indianapolis. The BIG EAST title game win gave the Bulldogs an automatic berth in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, its first appearance since 2010. Butler has advanced to the NCAA Tournament on seven occasions (also 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2009, and 2010). Five of the first six came by earning the automatic berth that came from winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League Tournament.
 
Snape has gone deeper onto his bench this season after All-League player Timmer was lost for the season to a leg injury in the team's second match of the season (Aug. 28 at Louisville). Midfielder Marco Charalambous, a starter in 2016, was lost for the season due to a knee injury sustained over the summer. Starters Derek Sutton and Bennett Kim have also missed multiple matches due to injury, but both are currently back in the line-up.
 
Geldenhuys and Leonard are the only Bulldogs to start all 18 matches for the Bulldogs. Both Leonard and Geldenhuys have played all but five minutes this season. Moulden has played every minute other than being forced to sit out the IU match due to yellow card accumulation.
 
Entering the NCAA Tournament, Snape has a record of 64-44-22. The Butler coaching staff, led by Snape, was named the NSCAA (now referred to as United Soccer Coaches) Great Lakes Region Staff of the Year for Division I institutions in 2016. This honor is a result of a vote by other coaches in the region.