Author Archives: Soccer America

TELEVISION NEWS … Bradley has scheduled a 10 p.m. kickoff (11 p.m. ET) for Friday’s match against Memphis, the opening game of the NSCAA College Game of the Week on Fox Soccer Channel.

Eleven of the 12 men’s matches will be played on Friday nights. All but one of the eight women’s matches will be featured on Sunday afternoon. Women’s action debuts on Sept. 20 when Boston University hosts Harvard.

(Read more for the complete NSCAA College Game of the Week schedule.)

WOMEN’S NEWS … North Carolina-Notre Dame ranks as the top rivalry in women’s college soccer. They’ll meet for the 17th time Friday night when the Tar Heels are the guests for the ailing Irish’s first women’s game at the new Alumni Stadium.

Five of the 16 meetings have been for the national championship, most recently in 2008 when the Tar Heels rallied after going down, 1-0, in the first minute and won, 2-1, on a pair of world-class goals by Casey Nogueira.

Heading into Friday’s Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic, North Carolina (3-0-0) is No. 1 and Notre Dame (2-0-0) is No. 4 in this week’s Soccer America Top 25.

Carolina has arguably the deepest team Anson Dorrance has ever assembled. Nogueira, 2008 Olympic gold-medalist Tobin Heath, Courtney Jones and Nikki Washington lead the attack that has scored 13 goals in three games. The Tar Heel defense includes goalie Ashlyn Harris, who was called up to the U.S. national team camp that begins next week.

On the other hand, the Irish entered a rebuilding year, having lost two-time Hermann Trophy winner Kerri Hanks, Brittany Bock, Carrie Dew and Elise Weber to WPS. To make matters worse, the Irish have been without their two senior co-captains, Michele Weissenhofer and Courtney Rosen. Weissenhofer has been bothered with hamstring problems, while Rosen is out indefinitely after breaking her left foot during preseason training.

TRIVIA: North Carolina won all five NCAA championship games against Notre Dame and leads the series with a 10-4-2 record. Perhaps the Irish’s most memorable accomplishment involved the 0-0 tie on Oct. 2, 1994 in St. Louis. Goalkeeper Jen Renola made 11 saves for Notre Dame, which snapped UNC’s NCAA record 92-game winning streak, the third time an Irish squad had broken an NCAA-record success string (joining football’s 1957 win at Oklahoma that ended the Sooners’ 47-game streak, and the 1974 men’s basketball team that stopped UCLA’s 88-game run).

Notre Dame-North Carolina Audio UND.com

* It wasn’t for a lack of trying that Wisconsin-Milwaukee fell to Marquette, 2-0, for its first loss at home since 2006. The Panthers held a 15-2 shot advantage in the second half after falling behind by two goals. “We completely dismantled them,” said UWM coach Michael Moynihan. “It was as good as I think I have ever seen our team play.” The game drew a women’s record crowd of 1,307 at Engelmann Field.

* Thursday night Top 25 action: Defending Big West champion UC Santa Barbara held No. 15 Michigan State to a 1-1 tie, while No. 9 West Virginia cruised past Duquesne, 4-0.

TOP 25 MATCHUPS:
Friday
No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 North Carolina (Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic)
No. 3 Portland vs. No. 23 Colorado College (Husky/Nike Invitational)
No. 5 Florida State vs. No. 10 Penn State
No. 16 Illinois vs. No. 8 UCLA (Illini Challenge Cup)
No. 14 California vs. No. 13 Texas A&M (Cal Invitational)

Sunday, Sept. 6
No. 7 Florida vs. No. 8 UCLA (Illini Challenge Cup)

(Follow all the action with Soccer America’s Women’s College Weekend Scoreboard.)

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … On a day when thick smoke from a wildfire hovered over the San Gabriel Mountains in the background and temperatures soared above 100 degrees, Cal Baptist and Azusa Pacific pulled off a pair of upsets in an interregional clash of women’s NAIA powers.

CBU ended defending champion and top-ranked Lee’s 19-game winning streak with a 1-0 victory on freshman Kitra Walters‘ goal. Defender Katie Rorabaugh had two goals and an assist for host Azusa Pacific in its 3-1 win over No. 3 Lindsey Wilson.

The first day of the Cougar classic had been moved from Azusa to Riverside because of the fires. Lee beat Azusa Pacific, 1-0, while Cal Baptist upset Lindsey Wilson, 3-1.

WOMEN’S NEWS … Georgetown set a school record with its fourth straight shutout to start the season, a 4-0 win over James Madison on Wednesday. “Our center backs, Michaela [Buonomo] and Gabby [Miller], have been outstanding,” Hoya coach Dave Nolan said. “Michaela is adopting more of a leadership role and Gabby is her silent counterpart in the middle.”

The Hoya should be very dangerous in the Big East with the return of playmaker Ingrid Wells, who red-shirted in 2008 to play for the USA at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup. “The two goals in the first half were set up by identical slotted passes from Ingrid,” Nolan said. “She moves so fast that it is hard for other teams to single-team and even double-team her defensively.”
 
* Roxanne Tebbs, who transferred from Utah to Weber State after her freshman year, returned to Salt Lake City and haunted the Utes scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory that snapped No. 19 Utah’s four-game winning streak.

The Utes outshot the Wildcats 28-12, but were unable to finish their chances. Utah coach Rich Manning could not fault his players’ efforts.m “They defended with passion and heart and [Rebecca Ritchie] was great in goal,” he said. “They had a chance and scored on it, and we were not good enough in front of the net on ours.”

HAT TRICK HERO (Wednesday, Sept. 2):
— Louisiana Tech’s Rachel King scored three goals in the 7-1 win over Prairie View A&M.

* Soccer America’s Women’s College Scoreboard has all of Wednesday’s results and the rest of the week’s Top 25 matches.