By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
Portage Central, St. Joseph and Battle Creek Lakeview received the top three seeds in the Big-16 Conference Soccer Tournament which begins Monday.
All three teams went undefeated in divisional play.
Portage Central, which won the Division 2 state title in 2000, will host 16th seed Benton Harbor in the first round, while St. Joseph will host Battle Creek Central in the first round. Lakeview gets Coldwater to open the tournament.
Dowagiac and Niles, the ninth and 12th seeds respectively, will hit the road on Monday for games at Sturgis and Portage Northern.
Sturgis is the No. 8 seed in the tournament, while Portage Northern, a runner up in Division 2 in 2001, is the No. 5 seed.
The junior varsity will play at 5 p.m. with the varsity match scheduled to begin at 6:45.
In other games, Marshall (4th) will host Loy Norrix (13), Mattawan (7) will host Battle Creek Harper Creek (10), and Lakeshore (6) will host Kalamazoo Central (11).
Second round games will be played on May 14 with the semifinals set for May 19 and the finals for May 21.
The highest seed always hosts.