NCAA Women's Soccer

[bbg95]

BYU advances 3-2 on penalties to play Florida State for the title on Monday night. FSU defeated Rutgers 1-0 in the first match.

[bbg95]

Dec 4, 2021 0:16:40 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Wow. I'm stunned.

I thought BYU was toast after that second miss and that Santa Clara was going to take a 2-0 advantage in PK's.

I was in the process of writing my congratulations to Santa Clara after the second miss, but then their second shooter airmailed her penalty, so I held off.

[bbg95]

That was a really exciting match between two great teams. Both teams had some good chances (especially in the first half when there was some suspect defending that allowed breaks), but neither could convert a goal in either regulation or extra time. Even though this was basically a road match, I think it benefited BYU to play a familiar opponent in a familiar location for their first Final Four match. Here is the full penalty shootout.

[mikegarrison]

Dec 4, 2021 1:26:21 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

That was a really exciting match between two great teams. Both teams had some good chances (especially in the first half when there was some suspect defending that allowed breaks), but neither could convert a goal in either regulation or extra time. Even though this was basically a road match, I think it benefited BYU to play a familiar opponent in a familiar location for their first Final Four match. Here is the full penalty shootout.

Sounds like the Seattle Sounders, who dominated their division in MSL for most of the season and then lost in penalty kicks in the first match of the playoffs.

What really hurt was that the other team (Salt Lake) took ZERO shots the entire game (including the extra time), but won on penalties.

[bbg95]

The national championship match is going to extra time.

[bbg95]

Still scoreless after extra time. The national championship will be decided in penalties.

[bbg95]

FSU wins. Congrats to the Seminoles. Disappointing for BYU to come up just short, but this is still their best season ever by a considerable margin.

[Mocha]

It looked to me like BYU was playing to take it to the penalty shootout hoping for a repeat of the Santa Clara result, it came back to bite them in the ***.

[bbg95]

Dec 7, 2021 0:17:16 GMT -5 Mocha said:

It looked to me like BYU was playing to take it to the penalty shootout hoping for a repeat of the Santa Clara result, it came back to bite them in the ***.

Eh, I don't really agree. FSU is just a very good team, and it's really hard to score on them. If Tucker had just stayed onside, BYU likely wins 1-0. FSU was also very, very lucky that Howell wasn't sent off on that foul that really should have been a second yellow, but the ref spared her. One thing I think BYU needs to work on is their set pieces. They led the nation in both scoring and corner kicks, but the BYU announcers said that a goal scored on a corner in the Elite 8 was only their second of the season. That seems insane to me, as corner kicks can be a good way to score if the defense is stifling the normal attack.

Edit: BYU had more shots (8-5) and shots on goal (3-1), so maybe FSU was the one that was playing for penalties. Hey, it worked. Honestly, I think both teams were trying to win during regulation at least, and even if Howell got sent off, I think FSU would just keep everyone back, and it still goes to penalties.

[bbg95]

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

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.

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

[trojansc]

Nov 10, 2023 23:19:35 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

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

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.

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

That's actually 3 years in a row of big upsets (they knocked out USC in the 1st round last year in Los Angeles as well) Also. That goal was... wild. I'm shocked the goalkeeper couldn't fend it off.

Regionalization... the only reason I like it is that it is often more feasible for fans to attend. But wow - it looks like this was the ONLY upset of the day too? Every other seeded team won? UCLA beat UCI 4-0 in Irvine in the regular season too.

[bbg95]

Nov 10, 2023 23:27:42 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Nov 10, 2023 23:19:35 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

That's actually 3 years in a row of big upsets (they knocked out USC in the 1st round last year in Los Angeles as well) Also. That goal was... wild. I'm shocked the goalkeeper couldn't fend it off.

Regionalization... the only reason I like it is that it is often more feasible for fans to attend. But wow - it looks like this was the ONLY upset of the day too? Every other seeded team won? UCLA beat UCI 4-0 in Irvine in the regular season too.

Correct. The other 19 seeded teams that played today all advanced:

(1) Florida State 5 Morehead State 0
(1) BYU 2 Utah State 0
(1) Clemson 2 Radford 0
(2) Arkansas 5 Grambling State 0
(2) Texas Tech 1 Florida Gulf Coat 0
(2) Stanford 3 Pepperdine 0
(3) North Carolina 3 Towson 1
(4) Wisconsin 2 Milwaukee 0
(4) Georgia 2 Liberty 1
(5) Texas 2 Lamar 0
(5) Iowa 2 Buckness 0 (a.e.t.)
(5) Michigan State 3 Ohio 0
(5) Nebraska 5 South Dakota State 2
(6) Saint Louis 2 Indiana 0 
(6) Alabama 2 Western Carolina 0
(7) Princeton 1 Michigan 0
(7) South Carolina 2 James Madison 0
(8) Texas A&M 1 Colorado 0
(8) USC 1 Grand Canyon 0

A lot of people were complaining about UCLA and Stanford being in the same bracket. I even saw some complain that they weren't on opposite sides of the bracket, and the committee was a disgrace for robbing them of a potential UCLA/Stanford final. I guess we don't have to worry about that anymore, lol.

[bbg95]

Nov 10, 2023 23:27:42 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Nov 10, 2023 23:19:35 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

Regionalization... the only reason I like it is that it is often more feasible for fans to attend. But wow - it looks like this was the ONLY upset of the day too? Every other seeded team won? UCLA beat UCI 4-0 in Irvine in the regular season too.

The women's soccer tournament is even more regionalized than women's volleyball and softball, at least in the first round. In those sports, four teams get sent to a subregional host for the first rounds. But in soccer, the top 32 teams all host. This is how BYU got stuck playing Utah State. They were 44th in RPI. Compared to that, the other No. 1 seeds got to play Morehead State (163), Radford (141) and UC Irvine (151)*. If this was volleyball, the committee could have Utah State play USC in the first round in Provo and given BYU a team like Valparaiso (146). Stanford getting Pepperdine (40) as a 2 seed is similar.

*I know the UC Irvine thing is funny in light of the result, but based on RPI, they do look like a true No. 16 seed.

[bobinmd]

Nov 10, 2023 23:27:42 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Nov 10, 2023 23:19:35 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

That's actually 3 years in a row of big upsets (they knocked out USC in the 1st round last year in Los Angeles as well) Also. That goal was... wild. I'm shocked the goalkeeper couldn't fend it off.

Regionalization... the only reason I like it is that it is often more feasible for fans to attend. But wow - it looks like this was the ONLY upset of the day too? Every other seeded team won? UCLA beat UCI 4-0 in Irvine in the regular season too.

I was disappointed to say the least. The Bruin loss caused me to have a softball flashback. Also I stopped plans to go to Cary.

[n00b]

Nov 10, 2023 23:27:42 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Nov 10, 2023 23:19:35 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

UC Irvine did it again! They were playing with 10 after a red card and still scored late to knock No. 1 seed (No. 2 overall) UCLA out of the tournament 1-0. I guess UCLA winning the national title last season takes a little bit of the sting out of it, but still. They probably never want to see UC Irvine again.

That's actually 3 years in a row of big upsets (they knocked out USC in the 1st round last year in Los Angeles as well) Also. That goal was... wild. I'm shocked the goalkeeper couldn't fend it off.

Regionalization... the only reason I like it is that it is often more feasible for fans to attend. But wow - it looks like this was the ONLY upset of the day too? Every other seeded team won? UCLA beat UCI 4-0 in Irvine in the regular season too.

Irvine was a legit 16 seed though. Maybe would've been a 15 if it was truly seeded. But if you can get a true seed matchup AND avoid travel, I think that's in the best interest of everybody involved.

The BYU/Utah State matchup is less ideal.