Syracuse has received the No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament and a first-round bye, the NCAA announced on Monday afternoon.

The Orange (15-3-1, 5-2-1 Atlantic Coast) will play the winner of Penn State and Hartwick on Sunday at SU Soccer Stadium at 2 p.m. The Nittany Lions, who earned an at-large bid, and the Hawks, who automatically qualified by winning the Sun Belt, will face off on Thursday in University Park, Pennsylvania.

If SU faces Hartwick in the second round, it’ll be a familiar sight for Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre, associate head coach Jukka Masalin and assistant coach Matt Verni. McIntyre was the Hawks’ head coach from 2003-09 and Masalin was his assistant for two years before both came to Syracuse. Verni led the women’s team from 2007-13 and also graduated from the school.

“Probably, yeah,” McIntyre said with a smile after being asked if he’d prefer a matchup with Hartwick. “As an alumnus, as a former coach, I am a little bit biased, delighted that they’re in the tournament. But they’ve got a tough game.”

The Orange defeated Hartwick, 4-1, in its first exhibition game on Aug. 16, and hasn’t played Penn State this year.

After beating Duke in the first round of the ACC tournament, Syracuse fell to Louisville, 2-1, in the semifinals on Friday. Last time it lost to the Cardinals’ the Orange went 2-0-1 in the next three games, finishing the regular season as the nation’s top-ranked team.

Said midfielder Stefanos Stamoulacatos: “We’re all confident that we have the ability to make it back to North Carolina and get to that final four again.”