Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

Four unseeded teams remain alive after the first two rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Tournament. Minnesota, James Madison, Rutgers and Illinois all moved into next weekend’s round of 16 with upsets.

Massachusetts, the surprise of last year’s Men’s College Cup, was almost written off half way through the 2008 campaign, but the Minutemen look set to return to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament after running off six straight wins to earn the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic-10 Tournament, which continues Friday with the semifinals at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

SOCCER AMERICA profiles the seven teams — Army, Belmont, Long Beach State, Morehead State, Northern Arizona, Northeastern and South Dakota State — making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and hoping to spring at upset in first-round action on Friday.

First, Virginia lost Chris Agorsor, the nation’s top freshman prospect, with a knee injury in September. Then, Tony Tchani, since named the ACC Freshman of the Year, went down with a knee injury of his own in late October. You’d think the Cavaliers were done for the year, but they exploded for a 4-2 win over Duke in the Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament in Cary, N.C.

It’s the No. 1 seed against the No. 8 seed, top-ranked and unbeaten Wake Forest against N.C. State in Wednesday’s ACC quarterfinals. A mismatch? Hardly. The Wolfpack is one of the hottest teams in the country, and Coach George Tarantini is relishing the opportunity to take on the mighty Demon Deacons.

Perhaps the most remarkable story of last weekend’s conference tournaments was Tennessee’s SEC championship. With an 8-10-1 record, the  Lady Vols’ only path to an eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance was to win the SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Ala. To make their task more difficult, Preseason All-American Kylee Rossi was sidelined with a hip injury that has ended her career.

Top-ranked Notre Dame (21-0-0) heads the 64-team NCAA Division I Women’s Tournament field. UCLA, Stanford and North Carolina, ranked 2-3-5 in the final Soccer America Women’s Top 25, are the other No. 1 seeds in one of the most competitive fields in women’s history. For all the tournament entrants and first-round schedule …

The 64-team field for the NCAA Division I Women’s Tournament will be announced by the NCAA Women’s Soccer Committee on Monday. Soccer America analyzes how weekend results affect teams on the bubble and predicts who will get at-large bids.

Denver is the second team to clinch an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament thanks to Saturday’s 1-0 win over Air Force and New Mexico’s 1-0 loss to San Jose State on Sunday that gave the Pioneers their first-ever Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship.

While conference tournament action continues this weekend, champions will also be crowned in the three women’s conferences that don’t hold postseason tournaments. There’s a three-way tie in the Ivy League. UCLA has the edge in the Pac-10, and the WCC features a winner-take-all finale between San Diego and Portland.

Three top 10 teams fell on Wednesday in women’s conference tournament action. No. 7 Florida State lost to Virginia Tech on penalty kicks in the ACC quarterfinals, and No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 10 Texas fell to Kansas (4-2) and Missouri (2-1), respectively, on the first day of play in the Big 12.

The best men’s conference race in the country is in the Big West, where only three points separated the top five teams. Interest is so high that No. 21 UC Santa Barbara drew 9,749 fans on Wednesday night for its 0-0 tie with No. 25 Cal Poly in their top-of-the-table clash.

Former U.S. national team star Paul Caligiuri resigned as Division II Cal Poly Pomona men’s coach to focus on other professional interests.

Freshman Cristian Gonzalez scored a goal in the 9th minute that held up to give No. 5 St. John’s a 1-0 win at Rutgers in a Big East makeup game that dropped the Scarlet Knights to last place in the Red Division and knocked it out of the Big East Tournament.

UCLA is No. 1 in the second RPI Index of NCAA Division I women’s programs released on Monday. The Bruins are followed by North Carolina, Stanford, Florida State and Portland. Top-ranked Notre Dame is No. 6.

UCLA became the first team to clinch a berth in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament when it won the Pac-10 title Sunday a 2-0 win over Stanford. Top 10 teams Wake Forest, St. John’s, Loyola (Md.) and UIC all clinched their respective conference regular-season titles, while the Big Ten title when to Michigan State in outgoing coach Joe Baum‘s last regular-season game.

UCLA moved into first place in the Pac-10 with a 1-0 win over Stanford in a battle of undefeated teams. The WCC will go down to the wire as Portland and San Diego, both 6-0-0, meet next Saturday for the WCC title. Play wrapped up this weekend in other major conferences, where North Carolina (ACC) and Oklahoma State (Big 12) were crowned regular-season champions. Penn State and Minnesota shared the Big Ten title, while Florida and LSU claimed divisional crowns in the SEC.