NCAA Women's Soccer

[bbg95]

Congrats to the Broncos on defeating Florida State in penalties to take their second title in school history. Between Santa Clara and Portland, that is now four women's soccer titles for the WCC since 2001. This is also the second NCAA title for the WCC in 2021, along with BYU women's cross country.

[trojansc]

They took down 3 ACC powers to finish it off (Clemson, North Carolina, and Florida State) including the overall #1 and #2 seed. Go Broncos!

[bbg95]

I didn't want to create a new thread for this, so I changed the existing title. Congratulations to Pepperdine for winning the men's golf national championship, their second in program history. This is the third title for a WCC school this year, along with BYU women's cross country and Santa Clara women's soccer. Three titles in one year is unprecedented for the conference, and they also had Gonzaga in the men's basketball title game.

[trojansc]

Santa Clara will play Stanford in the 1st round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. That's an insane matchup to think about as Santa Clara is the defending national champion and Stanford is a perennial Women's Soccer Powerhouse.

There was a GIGANTIC upset in that region of the bracket as well. UC Irvine just took down UCLA 1-0 in Westwood to eliminate the Bruins. UCLA was 16-0-3 on the season. UCLA finished 13-1-3 in their 2020 season as well.

[bbg95]

Nov 12, 2021 23:03:12 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Santa Clara will play Stanford in the 1st round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. That's an insane matchup to think about as Santa Clara is the defending national champion and Stanford is a perennial Women's Soccer Powerhouse.

There was a GIGANTIC upset in that region of the bracket as well. UC Irvine just took down UCLA 1-0 in Westwood to eliminate the Bruins. UCLA was 16-0-3 on the season. UCLA finished 13-1-3 in their 2020 season as well.

Yeah, regionalization is a thing in the women's soccer tournament as well. I was also excited to see that BYU got a seed, but then I was dismayed when I saw that their first-round matchup is New Mexico. My two alma maters facing off in the first round. Though I guess it's a reminder of one of the more infamous episodes in New Mexico sports history. I actually kind of forgot just how bad this was. She could have been red carded like six times.



Edit: I was thinking about making a thread for the tournament anyway, so I just changed the title of this one.

[n00b]

Nov 12, 2021 23:03:12 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Santa Clara will play Stanford in the 1st round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. That's an insane matchup to think about as Santa Clara is the defending national champion and Stanford is a perennial Women's Soccer Powerhouse.

There was a GIGANTIC upset in that region of the bracket as well. UC Irvine just took down UCLA 1-0 in Westwood to eliminate the Bruins. UCLA was 16-0-3 on the season. UCLA finished 13-1-3 in their 2020 season as well.

RPI, that’s #31 vs #32. Even with mens basketball bracketing principles, there’s a pretty good chance those two play each other.

[c4ndlelight]

Nov 13, 2021 9:28:18 GMT -5 n00b said:

Nov 12, 2021 23:03:12 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Santa Clara will play Stanford in the 1st round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. That's an insane matchup to think about as Santa Clara is the defending national champion and Stanford is a perennial Women's Soccer Powerhouse.

There was a GIGANTIC upset in that region of the bracket as well. UC Irvine just took down UCLA 1-0 in Westwood to eliminate the Bruins. UCLA was 16-0-3 on the season. UCLA finished 13-1-3 in their 2020 season as well.

RPI, that’s #31 vs #32. Even with mens basketball bracketing principles, there’s a pretty good chance those two play each other.

#12 and #20 in the MBB Poll would never play each other in the first round of the tournament. come on.

[sclawman]

Go Anteaters!

[n00b]

Nov 13, 2021 11:38:47 GMT -5 c4ndlelight said:

Nov 13, 2021 9:28:18 GMT -5 n00b said:

RPI, that’s #31 vs #32. Even with mens basketball bracketing principles, there’s a pretty good chance those two play each other.

#12 and #20 in the MBB Poll would never play each other in the first round of the tournament. come on.

Could be. But that’s an RPI issue, not regionalization.

[bbg95]

Nov 13, 2021 11:56:20 GMT -5 n00b said:

Nov 13, 2021 11:38:47 GMT -5 c4ndlelight said:

#12 and #20 in the MBB Poll would never play each other in the first round of the tournament. come on.

Could be. But that’s an RPI issue, not regionalization.

I think in men's basketball, they would probably try to avoid it as a first-round matchup, since everyone travels anyway. I agree that based just on RPI, it's a conceivable matchup, but there's no question in my mind that regionalization is a major reason why Santa Clara and Stanford are playing.

[c4ndlelight]

Nov 13, 2021 12:02:41 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Nov 13, 2021 11:56:20 GMT -5 n00b said:

Could be. But that’s an RPI issue, not regionalization.

I think in men's basketball, they would probably try to avoid it as a first-round matchup, since everyone travels anyway. I agree that based just on RPI, it's a conceivable matchup, but there's no question in my mind that regionalization is a major reason why Santa Clara and Stanford are playing.

Except... MBB doesn't use RPI, and even when they did, they were not slavishly adherent to it.

[bbg95]

Nov 13, 2021 12:03:39 GMT -5 c4ndlelight said:

Nov 13, 2021 12:02:41 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

I think in men's basketball, they would probably try to avoid it as a first-round matchup, since everyone travels anyway. I agree that based just on RPI, it's a conceivable matchup, but there's no question in my mind that regionalization is a major reason why Santa Clara and Stanford are playing.

Except... MBB doesn't use RPI, and even when they did, they were not slavishly adherent to it.

Right. I believe that was my point ("they would probably try to avoid it"). And yes, I'm aware that they don't use RPI anymore, but it's only been like two seasons. Off the top of my head, I don't recall a similar first-round matchup in the men's basketball tournament. Sometimes, the committee appears to try to create matchups of say, a coach of one team playing the team that he used to coach or two in-state teams that never plays each other in the regular season. But I don't recall an instance of two ranked recent national champions playing each other in the first round almost certainly to save money on travel costs. That may have happened back in the 1960s or 1970s or something because at that time, I'm pretty sure the men's basketball tournament was regionalized.

[c4ndlelight]

Nov 13, 2021 12:11:11 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Nov 13, 2021 12:03:39 GMT -5 c4ndlelight said:

Except... MBB doesn't use RPI, and even when they did, they were not slavishly adherent to it.

Right. I believe that was my point ("they would probably try to avoid it"). And yes, I'm aware that they don't use RPI anymore, but it's only been like two seasons. Off the top of my head, I don't recall a similar first-round matchup in the men's basketball tournament. Sometimes, the committee appears to try to create matchups of say, a coach of one team playing the team that he used to coach or two in-state teams that never plays each other in the regular season. But I don't recall an instance of two ranked recent national champions playing each other in the first round almost certainly to save money on travel costs. That may have happened back in the 1960s or 1970s or something because at that time, I'm pretty sure the men's basketball tournament was regionalized.

There would have been massive outcry if two Top 20 ranked teams met in the first round. It would not have been within MBB bracketing "principles"

[bbg95]

Santa Clara has had an interesting season. As the defending national champs with I think just about everyone back, they were ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll behind Florida State, and they actually had the most first-place votes. But they had a rough start to the season, as they were 3-4-2 at the end of September. They were a bubble team as recently as a couple weeks ago, but they thumped then-No. 3 Pepperdine 4-0 and followed that up by shutting down BYU's NCAA-leading scoring offense in a 1-0 victory (there was a missed handball in the box late in that match, but it was still an impressive defensive performance). They already lost to Stanford 3-1 earlier in the season in the middle of their rough patch, but they're playing better now. I'm not so sure about Stanford's season, as I wasn't paying that close attention outside of the WCC schools. The match is at 1PM PT, and it will be streamed on the WCC Network.

[trojansc]

Soccer is a fun sport.

UC Irvine had 4 shots, and only 1 shot on goal. They scored.
UCLA had 19 shots, and 8 shots on goal. They didn't score.

Season over.