ATHENS, Ga. --- The 22nd-ranked Georgia soccer team earned the No. 5 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament and will face fourth-seeded South Carolina in Wednesday's opening round in Orange Beach, Ala. The game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

It marks the second straight year the Bulldogs will open with South Carolina. Last year, fourth-seeded Georgia beat the fifth-seeded Gamecocks 2-1. Georgia has advanced to the championship game in each of the past two seasons.

In all, four games will be played Wednesday with the other games slated for 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.; all times are Eastern. The single elimination tournament features the league's top eight teams. The semifinals are slated for Friday followed by the finals on Sunday.

"We are facing one of the best teams in the conference and one of the best teams in the country in South Carolina," Georgia head coach Patrick Baker said. "We'll have to play better than we did against them in Athens to give ourselves a chance.

"We knew there were a couple of different scenarios coming into the weekend of who we would play," Baker said. "One through eight this is probably as good and as talented a group of teams going to Orange Beach that I've seen in my time at Georgia. Every game is going to be very meaningful and of the highest caliber. Each team will go into the tournament with aspirations of hoisting the trophy on Sunday."

Georgia (14-4-1, 7-4-0 SEC) handed then-No. 5 South Carolina (15-3-1, 7-3-1 SEC) its first loss of the season with a 2-1 victory over the Gamecocks on Oct. 16. Senior Carrie Patterson scored two unanswered goals in the second half after South Carolina took 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs finished with at least seven SEC wins for the third straight year and have won 14 games overall for just the fourth time in school history.

"Every matchup in the SEC Tournament is going to be a good game," senior goalkeeper Michelle Betos said. "This is a year where you truly don't know who is going to win anything. When it comes to our game against South Carolina, it doesn't really matter who the opponent is; we have to play well to have a chance to win."

Should the Bulldogs win their opening round game, they will play the winner of No. 1 Florida and No. 8 Tennessee Friday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Georgia dropped a 1-0 contest to Florida on Oct. 18 despite outshooting the Gators 21-11 and holding a 12-0 advantage in corner kicks. The Bulldogs defeated Tennessee 2-1 last Friday.

Other opening round games include No. 7 Vanderbilt vs. No. 2 LSU and No. 6 Auburn vs. No. 3 Ole Miss. The SEC championship game will be Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. Eastern, with the winner earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.