College Cup: 2009 D-I soccer bracket released

Tourney season is on….

The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 28th NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, was announced today by the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee.

The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first or second rounds. When pairing teams, the committee follows geographic proximity parameters. Sites are selected for the first and second rounds to create the least number of flights.  Thirteen of the top 16 seeds will be hosting first- and second-round competition.

The four No. 1 seeds include Stanford University, an automatic qualifier from the Pacific-10 Conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an automatic qualifier from the Atlantic Coast Conference, University of California, Los Angeles from the Pacific-10 and Florida State University from the Atlantic Coast.

Stanford will host Northern Arizona University, the Big Sky Conference champion, in a first-round match on Thursday, November 12. UCLA will host Boise State University, the Western Athletic Conference champion, in its opening-round game on Friday, Nov. 13. That same day North Carolina will host High Point University, the Big South Conference champion. Florida State, an at-large selection from the Atlantic Coast, will host Southeastern Louisiana University, the automatic qualifier from the Southland Conference.
North Carolina is the only team who has been invited to the tournament every year since its inception in 1982.

The No. 2 seeds include Boston College, University of Portland, University of South Carolina, Columbia and University of Notre Dame. Capturing No. 3 seeds are University of Central Florida, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and University of Florida. Santa Clara University, Penn State University, University of Maryland and Louisiana State University complete the top 16 seeded teams, each earning a No. 4 seed.

The Atlantic Coast and Pacific-10 lead all conferences with eight teams in the tournament. Seven teams will represent the Big East Conference. Six teams enter the tournament from the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference will be represented by five teams.

Thirty conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2009 championship. The remaining 34 teams were selected at-large.

The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives follow:  America East Conference, Boston University; Atlantic 10 Conference, University of Dayton; Atlantic Coast, North Carolina; Atlantic Sun Conference, Kennesaw State University; Big 12 Conference, Oklahoma State University; Big East, Notre Dame; Big Sky, Northern Arizona; Big South, High Point; Big Ten, Pennsylvania State University; Big West Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara; Colonial Athletic Association, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Conference USA, University of Memphis; Horizon League, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Ivy Group, Harvard University; Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Loyola College (Maryland); Mid-American Conference, Central Michigan University; Missouri Valley Conference, Illinois State University; Mountain West Conference, San Diego State University; Northeast Conference, Monmouth University; Ohio Valley Conference, Murray State University; Pacific-10, Stanford; Patriot League, Colgate University; Southeastern, South Carolina; Southern Conference, Davidson College; Southland, Southeastern Louisiana; Southwestern Conference, University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff; The Summit League, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Sun Belt Conference, University of Denver; West Coast Conference, University of Portland; and WAC, Boise State.

Nine teams are making their first appearance in the tournament and include: Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Boise State, Central Michigan, Davidson, Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis, Murray State, North Carolina-Wilmington, Southeastern Louisiana and St. John’s (New York).

First-round matches will be played Friday, November 13, at campus sites, and second-round matches will be played Sunday, November 15, at the same campus sites.  The first-round contests hosted by Stanford will be played Thursday, November 12 with the second-round game to be played Saturday, November 14. Third-round games will be played at on-campus sites November 20, 21 or 22. Quarterfinal matches will be played November 27, 28 or 29. Times will be announced.

The 28th annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played December 4 and 6 at the Aggie Soccer Stadium in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University, College Station will serve as host.

In the 2008 championship game, North Carolina captured its 19th NCAA title with a 2-1 victory over Notre Dame. Tarheel Casey Nogueira was named the Most Outstanding Player on offense and the Fighting Irish’s Carrie Dew was named the Most Outstanding Player on defense.

Interactive Bracket

(via release)

Women’s College Cup: Sweet Sixteen

November 21, 2008 – Lots of great match-ups this weekend as the nation’s top women’s soccer teams move to the NCAA Round of 16.

I’m personally looking forward to the UCLA-USC game tom’w night at Drake Stadium. It’s a rematch of last year’s College Cup Semifinals in which USC went on to win the NCAA championship.

This year,  the top-seeded and undefeated UCLA (20-0-2) hosts fourth-seeded USC (16-4-2). The Bruins defeated the Women of Troy, 2-1 in the only meeting between the two teams this season. 

Three Olympians highlight the Saturday showdown with UCLA’s Lauren Cheney and Kara Lang joining USC’s Amy Rodriguez on the field as players who participated in the recent Beijing Olympic Games. Cheney and Rodriguez were teammates on Team USA’s run to the gold medal, while Lang was a member of Canada’s squad.

The winner of this match advances to the quarterfinals to face either second-seeded Duke or third-seeded Virginia next week.

Both USC and UCLA write about the game on their websites.

In other matches,  the top-ranked Irish are set to play No. 22 Minnesota who kept their dream season alive with two wins last weekend to advance to its first-ever trip to the ‘Sweet 16.’

Check the NCAA bracket to see all the weekend match-ups.  Play on…

Stanford faces USC, Penn State meets Cal in volleyball championship

Dec. 10, 2007 – The second-ranked Nebraska volleyball team saw its hopes for a repeat national championship come to an end as 10th-seeded California made more plays down the stretch in eliminating the Huskers from the NCAA Tournament.

The Thursday night semis will see No. 1 seed Stanford (31-2) face No. 5 seed Southern California (29-4) at Arco Arena in a matchup of two Pacific-10 Conference powerhouses.

No. 3 seed Penn State (32-2) will play No. 10 seed California (26-7) in the second semifinal in a match-up of two of the premier blocking teams in the country.

See NCAA Sports

USC wins NCAA women’s soccer title

COLLEGE STATION, TX, Dec. 9 2007  – The women of Troy beat Florida State, 2-0, in the Women’s College Cup final for their fifth shutout in six postseason victories.

Florida State fell to Southern California closing out the most successful year in team history. The Seminoles, appearing in their first national championship game in school history, could not seem to find the back of the net as the Trojans held the nation’s second leading scoring team without a goal for just the second time all season. 

Maintaining the emotion and poise they had shown in upsetting cross town rival UCLA in the semifinals, the Trojans dominated at both ends of the field and held firm during a frantic push by the Seminoles in the closing minutes.

Under first-year Coach Ali Khosroshahin — the only first-year coach to lead his team to an NCAA women’s title — USC (20-3-2) outscored its six tournament opponents, 10-1, giving up its lone goal to UCLA on Friday.

Read More 

USC stuns UCLA In NCAA semifinals

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS  Dec. 7, 2007 – The USC women’s soccer team may have conceded its first goal of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, but it was the Trojans who had the last word in their NCAA Semifinal match against crosstown rival UCLA.

The Women of Troy punched in two second-half goals within seven minutes of each other – both off the feet of junior Amy Rodriguez – to clinch a 2-1 win over the top-seeded Bruins and earn USC a ticket to the NCAA Championship game. Second-seeded USC will face No. 3 seed Florida State at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday (Dec. 9) in the national championship game at Aggie Stadium.

USC Trojans

Final Four set for Women’s Soccer College Cup

College Station, Texas, Dec. 6, 2007 – The Division I Women’s Soccer Semifnals kick off on Friday in College Station. Notre Dame faces Florida State in one game and cross-town rivals USC and UCLA pair off in the other.  Three of the four teams were in the Final Four last year. Only last year’s winner, University of North Carolina, isn’t back on the field.

This year marks the first time that USC has advanced past the tournament’s second round in the program’s history. They enter the College Cup as the only team that hasn’t conceded a goal in the tournament.

View Brackets