Notre Dame and North Carolina won the Big East and ACC titles to finish 1-2 in the final Soccer America Women's Top 25.
Both teams are assured of all-important regional seeds that will keep them at home through the quarterfinals — if they keep winning — but last week's results did nothing to settle the other two regional seeds.
Soccer America's Women's Conference Tournament Scoreboard
UCLA (No. 3 in last week's Top 25), Santa Clara (No. 4), Florida State (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 8) and West Virginia (No. 9) all lost, while defending national champion Portland (No. 5) was tied by Loyola Marymount. Texas (No. 7) helped its cause by winning the Big 12 Tournament in San Antonio, Texas. A darkhorse for a top seed: surging Big Ten champion Penn State.
The NCAA Division I women's committee must decide by this afternoon the seedings and 34 at-large teams, to go along with 30 conference champions, that will comprise the 64-team field. The teams will be announced on ESPNEWS's NCAA Selection Show between 3-4 p.m. ET (12-1 p.m. PT).
Here's a look at the major conference tournaments:
ACC. Senior Elizabeth Guess scored the golden goal on a give-and-go from freshman Whitney Engen in the 99th minute to give top-seeded North Carolina a 2-1 victory over second-seeded Florida State. The championship was the Tar Heels' 17th overall in the 19-year existence of the tournament. Robin Gayle played the last two games for UNC after beginning the week with Canada at the Peace Queen Cup in South Korea.
BIG EAST. Notre Dame defended its title with a 4-2 victory over Rutgers in Sunday's final. Sophomore forward Kerri Hanks scored the first two goals to earn Most Outstanding Player honors. Hanks, who also scored in the semifinals, now has 18 goals for the season. Rutgers had upset West Virginia, 3-2, in a wild semifinal.
BIG TEN. After Penn State beat Illinois, 3-1, in the final, Nittany Lions coach Paula Wilkins said the victory would help her team in the seedings. ''We are peaking at the right time,'' she said, ''and I hope the selection committee sees that we battled through injuries early on and now we have some people healthy.'' Aubrey Aden-Buie set up the first and third goals to be named the tournament's top offensive player.
BIG 12. The University of Texas Tower was lit orange Sunday night in the Longhorns' championship honor, as they won their first Big 12 tourney title with a shootout (5-4) victory over Colorado (1-1 after 110 minutes) in the final. Goalie Dianna Pfenninger kept Texas alive in the shootout, blocking Brittany Dornseif's shot on the Buffalos' fifth attempt to continue the PK session.
SEC. Megan Jones scored two goals to lead Kentucky to a 2-1 victory over Florida in the final. Keeper Anne Ogundele was the Tournament MVP for the Wildcats, who enter the NCAA Tournament 6-0-1 in their last seven games.
Upsets abounded elsewhere. UAB, seeded seventh in the Conference USA Tournament, was the lowest seed to win a conference tournament. McNeese State (No. 6) was the lowest seed entered in the Southland Tournament but captured the title. Three No. 5 seeds — Jacksonville (Atlantic Sun), UNC Asheville (Big South) and Toledo (Mid-American) — won conference titles.
No team had a more thrilling road to the championship than UNLV, which downed Wyoming on a goal by Katie Carney with two seconds left in regulation, then beat No. 13 BYU and No. 10 Utah in shootouts to repeat as Mountain West champ.
WOMEN'S CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
ACC: North Carolina
America East: Hartford
Atlantic Sun: Jacksonville
Atlantic-10: Saint Louis
Big East: Notre Dame
Big Sky: Idaho State
Big South: UNC Asheville
Big Ten: Penn State
Big 12: Texas
Big West: Cal State Fullerton
CAA: Old Dominion
Conference USA: UAB
Horizon: Loyola (Ill.)
Ivy: Columbia
MAAC: Niagara
Mid-American: Toledo
Mid-Continent: Oakland
Missouri Valley: Drake
Mountain West: UNLV
Northeast: Long Island
Ohio Valley: Southeast Missouri
Pac-10: UCLA
Patriot: Navy
SEC: Kentucky
Southern: UNC Greensboro
Southland: McNeese State
Sun Belt: Denver
SWAC: Grambling State
WAC: Nevada
WCC: Santa Clara