Top women’s seeds meet in ‘fierce final four’

December 4, 2008 – It all comes down to this weekend. It’s the fiercest foursome to meet at the Women’s College Cup in recent memory. Who will come out #1?

All four top seeds reached the national semifinals for the first time since 1997 and just the fifth time overall. The teams have the most combined wins (92) and tied for the fewest combined losses (two) of any final foursome in the history of the tournament.

The Fighting Irish, who are riding a school-record 25-game winning streak, enter the weekend as the top-ranked team in the country. They are making their fourth appearance in the Women’s College Cup in the last five years, including their third in a row.

UCLA has posted a school-record 19 shutouts and went through the regular season undefeated for the first time in school history. They completely dominated Duke in the quarterfinal match. The Bruins are making their sixth consecutive appearance in the College Cup, the longest active streak in the country but unbelievably they haven’t won a national championship.

Stanford has a great team this year but the Cardinal players won’t have any College Cup experience to draw upon when they take on Notre Dame. The team is playing in the NCAA tournament for the 11th consecutive season, but is making its first College Cup appearance since 1993.

Of course UNC can never be counted out. Coach Anson Dorrance has led North Carolina to the NCAA Women’s College Cup 24 times in the 27-year history of the event and guided the Tar Heels to 18 NCAA championships, most recently here in 2006. Plus, the Tar Heels have a homefield advantage, traveling just 35 miles from Chapel Hill, N.C., to the same field where they won the ACC tournament title last month.

Stanford (22-1-1) and Notre Dame (25-0-0) kick off the action at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec, 5 followed by North Carolina (23-1-2) and UCLA (22-0-2) at 7:00. Both games will be broadcast live on ESPN2/ESPNU

The championship game will take place Sunday, Dec . 7th. at 2:00 and will be broadcast live on ESPN2. These should all be great games – be sure to catch the action!

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