BY SCOTT FRENCH
Soccer America Senior Editor

No. 1 Stanford was given a grueling path to the College Cup women's soccer final four and West Region teams were again handicapped by NCAA strictures on travel as the 64-team Division I Tournament bracket was unveiled Monday.

The top-seeded Cardinal (18-1-0) were given the most difficult of the 16 first- and second-round quartets, one including 15th-ranked Denver (17-1-2) and No. 18 California (11-7-1), and it must get through seventh-ranked Portland (14-4-2) to reach the Dec. 6-8 College Cup in Austin, Texas.

No. 2 North Carolina (17-1-4) and No. 3 UCLA (16-3) were placed in the same bracket, and two seeds from the West Coast Conference were given road assignments as the region received a rough go despite efforts by the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Committee to spread teams from the region, unquestionably the strongest in the nation, around the four brackets.

The eight seeded teams, in order: Stanford, North Carolina, Pepperdine (16-1-2), Connecticut (18-2-1), West Virginia (16-2-1), Santa Clara (15-4-1), UCLA and Portland.

First-round play begins Thursday in Provo, Utah, with host Brigham Young (16-5-0) taking on Mountain West Conference rival Utah (12-3-3) and Portland meeting Big Sky champion Idaho State (13-6-1). The other 15 quartets will play openers on Friday; second-round games will be played Saturday (in Provo) and Sunday (everywhere else).

THREE CONFERENCES, 18 TEAMS: Six teams were selected from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Pacific Coast conferences, and five were chosen from the WCC. The Big East and SEC each contributed four teams, and the Atlantic-10, Big 12, Conference USA and Ivy League qualified three apiece.

Three of 11 teams making their first appearance — Michigan State (12-6-2), Ohio State (8-10-3) and Purdue (13-4-3) — are from the Big Ten Conference. The other eight are American (10-8-2), Creighton (12-7-2), Loyola Marymount (10-6-3), Mississippi (13-4-2), Northwestern State (12-5-5), Rhode Island (15-5-1), Utah and Yale (11-4-2).

Stanford, which went 9-0-0 and surrendered just one goal in winning the Pacific-10 Conference — arguably the most talented conference in the country — was handed a difficult weekend and a notable conflict that should hinder attendance at Maloney Field.

Denver, which dominated the Sun Belt Conference, and Cal, a talented team that struggled with injury and inconsistency, played in the opening quartet at Stanford last season. Denver was beaten by the Cardinal, and Cal fell to St. Mary's.

The Pioneers and Bears face off in one of two first-round matchups pitting Top 25 teams against each other; the other sends No. 16 Washington State (11-6-2) against No. 25 Arizona State (11-6-2) in an all-Pac-10 showdown at Santa Clara. The games this weekend at Stanford and Santa Clara, schools perhaps 15 miles apart, will be played simultaneously.

Stanford also was given a tough first-round foe in Cal Poly (14-6-0), which conquered a deep, talented Big West Conference field and played a tough non-conference schedule. Four of the Mustangs' losses came against No. 4 Santa Clara, No. 5 Pepperdine, No. 16 Washington State — all by one goal — and NCAA qualifier San Diego (11-6-3). Their best-quality win came against Loyola Marymount.

Notre Dame (11-7-0), which failed to qualify for the eight-team Big East Conference tournament, was given a home assignment for the first two rounds in the quartet opposite Stanford's; it is a relatively weak group, highlighted by Purdue and also featuring surprise Big Ten tournament champ Ohio State and Ohio Valley Conference tournament titlist Eastern Illinois (12-7-2).

TOUGHEST REGIONAL: The toughest bracket is the fourth, in all but name the ''South'' regional. A third-round meeting looms between the winner of a loaded quartet at UCLA (UCLA vs. Loyola Marymount, USC vs. San Diego) and that of the group at Texas A&M (Texas A&M vs. Northwestern State, Texas vs. SMU). The winner of that match likely would have to get by North Carolina to reach the final four.

The foursome in College Station, Texas, is nearly identical to the one that played the first two rounds at Texas A&M last year. SMU (12-5-4) upset Texas (15-4-1) in a first-rounder, then lost to Texas A&M (17-4-1), which had beaten Southland Conference champ Southwest Texas. The Aggies' opponent Friday, Northwestern State from Louisiana, is the Southland Conference's representative.

Possible second-round matchups include No. 24 Virginia (11-6-2) at No. 8 West Virginia (17-2-1), No. 10 Nebraska (14-5-3) at No. 20 Villanova (14-2-4), No. 22 Cincinnati (16-3-3) at No. 12 Tennessee (16-5-1), No. 13 Penn State (15-3-1) at No. 19 Maryland (12-7-2), and No. 14 Clemson (14-7-0) at No. 23 Charlotte (16-1-2).

The NCAA committee, chaired by Wake Forest senior associate athletic director Barbara Walker, divided the West Regional quartets among three of the four brackets, but each of the quartets is a sizzler. There are the groups at Stanford and BYU in what could be termed the ''Western'' regional, the UCLA foursome in the ''South,'' and groups headed by WCC co-champions Santa Clara and Pepperdine in the ''Midwest.''

TRAVELING SEEDS: Three of the eight seeds — No. 3 Pepperdine, No. 6 Santa Clara and No. 8 Portland — came from the WCC, and two of them are on the road. Portland, which lost road games to BYU and Utah on the season's opening weekend, was placed in Provo, Utah. Pepperdine was sent to Milwaukee, where it will face Horizon League champ UW Milwaukee (11-5-5) in the first round. The other matchup pits host Marquette (13-7-3) against Wisconsin (12-7-3).

Santa Clara was the only seed to travel for the first two rounds last season. The Broncos received an easier draw as a result and went on to win the title, beating North Carolina, 1-0, in the final.

Portland doesn't have it so easy. Should the Pilots get through first two games, No. 14 Clemson — or perhaps No. 23 Charlotte — awaits. And then, most likely, it's Stanford.

Pepperdine has fewer complaints, aside those concerning the Wisconsin chill. The group in Marquette is among the weaker foursomes, and even weaker is the quartet in Michigan (Michigan vs. Oakland, Michigan State vs. Miami, Ohio), which would supply the third-round foe. That said, either Michigan (13-5-2) or Miami, Ohio (18-2-2), could give the Waves problems.

SOME SURPRISES: There were several surprises among the 35 teams receiving at-large bids — the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences fared better than perhaps deserved, and Yale's inclusion was most interesting.

There are 11 members on the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Committee, 10 from universities and one from the NCAA. Five of the universities with representation received at-large berths: Marquette, Michigan State, USC, Wake Forest and Yale.

All were teams that could not have been assured of selection, although Wake Forest (12-7-1) and USC (10-7-3) were ranked most of the season before finishing poorly.

Marquette benefited from a strong close, with upsets of Saint Louis and previously unbeaten Charlotte to reach the Conference USA title game, where Cincinnati prevailed. The Golden Eagles had six wins over NCAA qualifiers to their credit, but they went through a 1-4-3 stretch shortly before the Conference USA tournament and likely would have been left home without a strong performance.

The most questionable was Yale (11-4-2), one of three teams selected from an overrated Ivy League. The Bulldogs played every match this season against competition from New England and New York, the weakest regions in Division I, and they failed to win in four of seven conference matches. To their credit was a 2-0 victory over America East champion Hartford (14-6-0) and a 1-0 loss to Connecticut, which has won by one goal in half its 18 victories.

BIG TEN BONANZA: Michigan State's invitation was part of a Big Ten bonanza. There may be no conference with greater parity in Division I, but six teams seems a tad generous, as was last season's eight-team gift to the Big East.

No. 13 Penn State, Michigan and Purdue are certainly worthy qualifiers, and Ohio State wouldn't be in the field without the conference title.

Wisconsin went 4-8 against NCAA qualifiers, two of the wins against Michigan State, and tied three teams not in the field. Michigan State also beat four NCAA qualifiers, although three of them — Oakland (10-11-1), Kentucky (11-8-0) and Ohio State — have some of the weakest credentials among the 64. The Spartans also were unable to get out of the first round at the Big Ten tournament, which they hosted.

Nonetheless, Wisconsin and Michigan State deserve serious consideration. That may not be the case for some Southeastern Conference qualifiers.

No. 12 Tennessee and regular-season champion Auburn were the SEC's shoo-ins, but Kentucky's and Mississippi's selections were more curious. The Wildcats went 3-6 against NCAA qualifiers, beating BYU during its early-season struggles and topping uneven Michigan and largely untested Mississippi in the final two weeks of the regular season. Ole Miss (13-4-2) didn't play the toughest schedule; the only qualifier it beat was Kentucky.

OMISSIONS: The committee inexplicably omitted No. 21 Duke, which compiled a 9-9-2 record against a devastating schedule. The Blue Devils went 4-7-2 against teams in the NCAA tournament, with wins over Tennessee, Wake Forest and Virginia and ties with Florida State (11-6-3) and North Carolina.

The NCAA implemented the ''Duke'' rule this year to deny at-large berths to teams with sub-.500 records, after coaches complained when the Blue Devils last year earned an NCAA bid with a losing record. Duke plays in one of the three toughest conferences (ACC), so balanced that everybody except North Carolina sustained at least three defeats; it augments its ACC slate with a non-conference schedule that this year included Texas, Washington, Charlotte and Marquette.

A good number of the top teams in the country play rugged schedules and many squads with six or seven losses, or more, are stronger than teams from weaker conferences carrying far fewer defeats. The Blue Demons are penalized for playing a challenging schedule while Kentucky, Mississippi and Yale — all from conferences significantly weaker than the ACC — are rewarded for scheduling less demanding opponents.

Another in a similar situation as Duke is Washington (9-8-3), which faced North Carolina, Portland, Texas and Texas A&M in addition to a difficult Pac-10 schedule. The Huskies paid for a four-game losing streak — with three of the losses to Stanford, Arizona State and UCLA — that preceded Sunday's 5-0 rout of visiting USC.

Another team with a legitimate gripe is Rutgers (10-8-2), which suffered seven of its eight defeats to NCAA Tournament teams, half of them in one-goal decisions. The Scarlet Knights couldn't overcome a lack of quality wins and 1-0 losses to Notre Dame and Princeton (13-2-1).

NAVY JUST MISSES — AGAIN: Navy (16-1-4) and Coach Carin Gabarra failed to reach the tournament again. Her Midshipmen were upset in the Patriot League tournament final after winning the regular-season title in 2001, and they were unbeaten until this year until a stunning loss to American in the Patriot semifinals.

Others who missed out despite strong campaigns included WAC runner-up UTEP (16-3-0) and Big West Conference runner-up UC Santa Barbara (13-5-2). Florida (10-10-2) and St. Mary's (9-9-2) also deserved serious consideration.

The battle for at-large berths grew tighter with results from some of the tournaments that determine automatic qualifiers in 25 of the 29 Division I conferences. The triumph of Richmond (13-5-2) in the Atlantic-10 and of James Madison (12-7-3) in the Colonial Athletic Association eliminated two at-large berths: The A-10 figured to get regular-season co-champions Dayton (17-3-0, including a forfeit victory over Illinois) and Rhode Island to the tournament; William & Mary (13-6-1) was the CAA's sure thing. Ohio State's triumph in the Big Ten tournament removed another at-large berth from circulation.

Home assignments for the first two rounds was determined based on several criteria, including location and qualify of facility. That best explains Notre Dame's and Marquette's selections as hosts while Clemson, Denver, Penn State, Pepperdine, Portland and Texas prepare for treks.

BEST BETS FOR AUSTIN: The growing parity in college women's soccer makes for no easy predictions any more, although three old final-four favorites — 17-time national champ North Carolina, Santa Clara and Portland — are among the best bets.

Stanford is the nation's best team, with outstanding personnel all over the field — a strong argument can be made for six Cardinal players as All-Americans — a multifaceted attack and a superb defense led by left back Alisan Pabon that has surrendered only four goals all season.

A Stanford-Portland matchup in the quarterfinals looks likely; how well the Cardinal can shut down Canadian national-teamer Christine Sinclair could determine one-quarter of the field in Austin.

The second bracket appears the weakest. Connecticut, West Virginia and Penn State seem the classiest of the 16 teams, but Virginia has the talent to get to Texas should everything fall into place. If not, UConn should have the best chance. The Huskies likely will stay in Storrs through the quarters, and their combination of strong defense and opportune finishing — and their tenacity in tight games — bodes well for the postseason.

Pepperdine beat Santa Clara and Portland in WCC play, and Nebraska had a sensational week at the Big 12 tournament. But Santa Clara should be difficult to beat. The Broncos' attacking talent is unmatched in college soccer — playmaker Aly Wagner already is a U.S. national team standout — but they've lacked consistency most of the year.

The fourth 16-team bracket is the toughest, with North Carolina, UCLA, Texas and Texas A&M all legitimate NCAA title contenders. (The brackets would have more parity had the Texas A&M quartet been traded with Maryland quartet in the second bracket.) North Carolina's performance at the ACC tournament signals its readiness, and the Tar Heels have never missed a final four before. No sense in believing they will this fall.