Highlights from the past few months

It's been awhile since this blog was updated. I got busy and it sort of fell by the wayside.

• North Carolina added another National Championship when they beat Notre Dame, 2-1, in the College Cup final.




• The USWNT beat Canada in the Gold Cup final, on a controversial extra time penalty kick.


• The WNT brought home the Peace Queen Cup in January


• They also brought home the Algarve Cup, after beating Denmark 3-0 in the final. Germany had a very poor showing, finishing 8th place.



• The WUSA announced a relaunch for 2008. They have six initial investors
  

NCAA brackets: Oregon snubbed, Portland unseeded

The Northwest was dealt a blow as the Women's NCAA Soccer Cup tournament brackets were released earlier today. Last year's national champions, Portland, were not give a top 16 seed, despite being ranked in the 10 in every poll throughout the year. They will travel to Utah to meet BYU in the first round.

While the lack of a seed for Portland is insulting, the completely snubbing of Oregon is extremely questionable. The Ducks finished a fantastic season by beating UCLA and USC this past weekend and claimed second in the Pac-10, but apparently this was not good enough for the selection committee. UCLA, Stanford, Cal and USC were the teams picked from the Pac-10.

Santa Clara hosts a double header on Friday evening, as they play USC and Stanford takes on Nevada. The winners will play on Sunday.

Peace Cup

On the international level, the Peace Queen Cup is currently going on in South Korea. It kicked off last Sunday with eight nations competing.

Group A:
Canada
Brazil
South Korea
Italy

Group B:
United States
Denmark
Australia
The Netherlands

Canada is currently at the top of their group with two strong wins over Italy (3-2) and Korea (3-1)

Australia is at the top of Group B with a win over The Netherlands. The United States tied with Denmark in their opening game, 1-1, and takes on Australia next.

For anyone interested in watching the full matches from the Peace Cup, MBC Zine, a Korean television website, has them all linked on their homepage. Fortunately, they linked with pictures from the game so they're easy to find.

If you don't feel like watching the whole match, US Soccer has highlights of the USA-Denmark game, and the Peace Cup website has highlights from all the games, though I've had trouble access the videos.

Around the NCAA

Pac-10

• Stanford continued their winning streak as they beat Oregon and Oregon State this weekend, 2-0 and 1-0, respectively. The win over Oregon puts them in excellent position to capture second place in the Pac-10.
  

• UCLA remained undefeated wins over Washington and Washington State on their final home stand of the season. The Bruins posted 2-0 shutouts over both Washington schools.

• USC recorded another scoreless tie in their game against Washington State on Friday, which makes that their 5th scoreless tie of the season and 4th in Pac-10 play. Fortunately, their offense was able to pick it up and post a 2-0 over Washington on Sunday.
  

• Cal drew a scoreless tie with Oregon on Friday, but came back with a 2-0 win over Oregon State on Sunday afternoon.
  

• Down in the desert, the Arizona schools went head to head and Arizona State soundly beat their rivals, 4-0.
  

• With one week left to go in conference play, the LA schools head up to Oregon, the Arizonas head to Washington, while Cal and Stanford face off on Sunday.

• While UCLA, and Stanford seem to have secured their NCAA bids, this last weekend will be important for several schools. Oregon (4-1-2) (10-6-2) currently holds third in the Pac-10 when they enter their toughest weekend yet, as they face UCLA and USC. USC will be a tough affair as both schools fight for a NCAA tournament bid. Cal (2-3-3) (9-4-5) has two important games coming up this week against Bay Area rivals, Santa Clara (11/1) and Stanford (11/5).
  

West Coast Conference

• Pepperdine drops out of first place with a 3-1 loss to Portland on Sunday. SCU and Portland remain tied for first place going into the last weekend of conference play. SCU will be at St. Mary's and Portland is at LMU.
  

• Marian Dalmy of SCU was named player of the week for the WCC and it's well deserved. With five goals and six assists on the year, Dalmy is second points on the team with 16. The senior defender was named to the M.A.C Hermann watch list at the beginning of the season, and has proven herself to be a contender for the award.
  

Conference championships are starting to kick off. The Big East has already started theirs, with Notre Dame advancing to the Semifinals on Friday, Nov 3rd. The first Big East semifinal, featuring Notre Dame and Marquette, will be aired live on ESPNu at 4:30pm EST and the second semi, with Rutgers and West Virginia, will be shown delayed at 11pm EST.

The ACC starts their championships on Wed, Nov 1st in Cary, North Carolina. ACC Select will be there to cover all the quarter and semi final matches. The final match will be aired live Sunday, Nov 5th on FSN South and NESN. Fox Soccer Channel will also be airing the game on 8pm EST on the following Wednesday.

A post will all conference championship television information will come later this week.

Pac-10 Weekend Roundup 10/22

After coming off a fantastic weekend at home where they swept the Arizona schools, Stanford headed up north to play the Washington schools where they continued their streak. Friday afternoon, they squeezed past Washington State 1-0 on a goal by Allison Falk. On Sunday afternoon, they headed to Seattle to take on Washington, and again shut out the opposing team in a 2-0 victory. Freshmen Alicia Jenkins and Kelley O'Hara contributed to the goal effort. Stanford improves to 11-5-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the Pac-10.

Cal also headed up to Washington state where they defeated Washington 4-1 on Friday gaining their first win in Pac-10 play, but lost to Washington State 2-0 on Sunday. The Bears are 8-4-4 overall and 1-3-2 in the Pac-10.

USC traveled to Arizona this weekend, where they needed a win salvage any NCAA tournament hopes. They did get one from ASU on Friday in a 1-0 victory, but against Arizona played to a third scoreless tie in their Pac-10 schedule this season. USC moves to 8-3-4 overall, and 1-1-3 in the Pac-10.

UCLA remained undefeated in the Pac-10 by beating Arizona 1-0 with a goal by Danesha Adams on Friday, and on Sunday afternoon Lauren Cheney scored both goals to beat Arizona State 2-1. UCLA improves to 14-2 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-10

Rounding out Pac-10 play this weekend, Oregon beat Oregon State 2-1 in OT. Oregon remains undefeated in conference play with a 4-0-1 record and 10-5-1 overall.

Next weekend, the Oregon schools head down to the Bay Area to play Cal and Stanford, the Washington schools take on UCLA and USC in LA, and the Arizona schools face off against each other.

Pac-10 Weekend Round Up - 10/9

While Stanford weren't able to come away with a win in Los Angeles this weekend, they left an impression. While the 0-0 tie with USC may not have been the result the Cardinal would have liked, the young team proved themselves against UCLA. Stanford was able to hold the Bruins scoreless until the 80th minute when Danesha Adams broke open the game. Christina DiMartino followed two minutes later to make the final score 2-0 UCLA.

Stanford's defense performed admirally this weekend, but after not getting a goal in either game the offense needs to find their finishing touch. They aren't having problems creating chances, as they typically out shoot their opponents, but the number of shots doesn't give you a win. When the Arizona schools travel to the Bay Area this weekend to play Stanford and Cal, hopefully the Cardinal will find the back of the net again.

In other Pac-10 news, Cal dropped to UCLA 4-1 then took USC to their second scoreless tie of the weekend. Oregon had a great opening weekend, winning both their matches at Arizona (2-1) and Arizona State (1-0), while Oregon State beat Arizona State (2-1 OT), but lost against Arizona (2-0). Up north, Washington State beat Washington 1-0.

Pac-10 Standings - 10/8

1. UCLA (6) 2-0-0, 1.000, 11-2-0, .846
Oregon (6) 2-0-0, 1.000, 8-5-0, .615
3. Washington State (3) 1-0-0, 1.000, 6-4-2, .583
4. Oregon State (3) 1-1-0, .500; 8-3-2, .692
Arizona (3) 1-1-0, .500; 8-5-0, .615
6. USC (2) 0-0-2, .500; 7-2-3, .708
7. California (1) 0-1-1, .250; 7-2-3, .708
Stanford (1) 0-1-1, .250; 7-5-1, .577
9. Washington (0) 0-1-0, .000; 5-7-0, .417
10. Arizona State (0) 0-2-0, .000; 5-5-2, .500

WNT: Iceland Roster - Rapinoe Out, Welsh In

US Soccer officially confirms Megan Rapinoe's torn ACL, suffered in Portland's game against Iceland, as they announce that Christie Welsh will replace her on the roster for Sunday's game against Iceland.

The roster against Iceland is pretty much the same, except Natasha Kai is back as Danesha Adams returns to UCLA, and the previously mentioned Welsh for Rapinoe. Hope Solo is expected to start in goal.

GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Briana Scurry, 18-Hope Solo
DEFENDERS (6): 17-Lori Chalupny, 8-Tina Frimpong, 4-Stephanie Lopez, 15-Kate Markgraf, 2-Heather Mitts, 3-Christie Rampone
MIDFIELDERS (5): 16-Angela Hucles, 11-Carli Lloyd, 15-Marci Miller, 12-Leslie Osborne, 10-Aly Wagner
FORWARDS (4): 6-Natasha Kai, 13-Kristine Lilly, 5-Lindsay Tarpley, 20-Abby Wambach, 19-Christie Welsh

The game against Iceland will be televised live on ESPN2 at 1:55pm EST.

Thursday Night College Round Up

• North Carolina continued their winning streak by beating Virginia 2-0. Freshmen Aly Hawkins and Whitney Engen contributed for the goals.



• Florida State shut out Maryland 1-0 with Kelly Rowland scoring the only goal.



• Portland had a win over Washington State 2-1 with Rachael Rapinoe and Natalie Budge each notching a goal. Portland All-American and national team player, Megan Rapinoe left the field just before half time with a knee injury. Early reports indicate an ACL, though further tests must be run.

Pac-10 Schedule Opens

The Pac-10 schedule opens with a bang this weekend as Stanford and Cal travel travel down to take on UCLA and USC.

Stanford is probably one of the most overlooked teams in the country. They played a challenging pre-conference schedule, with three of their four losses coming from teams ranked in the top 20. They've been slowly inching their way up in the rankings the past couple of weeks, but remain out of the top 25.

This Cardinal team has an explosion of new blood this season, as they start four freshmen on the field. Ali Riley and Kelley O'Hara lead the way on the front line, as Alicia Jenkins and Katie Riley combine with senior Rachel Buehler in the backline. With the additional experience of Lizzy George and Shari Summers in the midfield, this Stanford team is out to make a successful bid through the Pac-10 schedule. While UCLA are favoured to win the conference, Stanford will give them a good run, and definitely challenge for second.

FSN will be at the UCLA-Cal game, and will be aired on several regional stations on Wed, Oct 11. Check your local FSN channel for times.