So That Happened
October 23, 2014
North Carolina 1-1 Florida State
The last two perfect teams in the ACC faced off with a potential regular season title on the line and an NCAA tournament number one seed up for grabs. Both squads had been in impressive form coming into the game. The Tar Heels’ offense had been a fireworks display the past few games, and the Seminoles’ defense playing shutout soccer game in and game out. The tie was probably a fair result for both sides, and sets the stage for a possible rematch in either the ACC or NCAA tournament. Senior Dagny Brynjarsdottir gave the visitors the lead in the first half, but North Carolina found a second-half equalizer through freshman Annie Kingman. North Carolina closed out the weekend with a win against Miami, and Florida State followed up with a win against North Carolina State.
October 24, 2014
Arizona 2-3 Stanford
The Wildcats have been a surprise team in the Pac-12 this season, and headed into this game with hopes of an NCAA tournament bid alive and well, despite their recent poor form. Stanford has been impressive as well, and their push for a national seed is still going strong after their loss to UCLA. While the Arizona offense had been struggling, and the Stanford defense has shown itself as one of the best in the nation, the goals were plenty in this match. Arizona came back to tie the game at two through senior Julia Glanz and freshman Gabi Stoian but fell just short in overtime. The Cardinal were eventually able to outgun the home side with a goal from senior Lo’eau LaBonta and a brace, including the game-winner in overtime, from senior Taylor Uhl. Arizona tied Cal on Sunday, and Stanford defeated Arizona State to close out the weekend.
In and Out
Rutgers has fallen from grace in the Big Ten standings. Despite dropping its first match in conference play, the Scarlet Knights then ran off eight results in a row with their only slip a draw at Nebraska in late September. But Rutgers have lost three straight and haven’t scored a goal in any of those matches. They finish the regular season with a trip to Ohio State on Halloween, which will be a telling match for the squad if it wants to head into the Big Ten tournament on a high note and if they drop another game, they will be limping into West Lafayette, Indiana next week.
Top Performers
Kori Chapic (Penn State) — The Penn State Nittany Lions secured their 16th Big Ten regular season title this past week and a big part of their success has been the efforts of senior Kori Chapic. The midfielder has started in all of Penn State’s matches this season and put together a two-goal, two assist week in a pair of wins over Nebraska and Iowa. With Penn State securing the number one seed in the Big Ten tournament, Erica Walsh’s team will be looking to Chapic for senior leadership in its quest to get to the conference championship.
Megan Kufeld (Washington) — Kufeld built a brick wall in front of her goal this past week as she recorded three shutouts and 15 saves in Washington’s 2-0-1 week. The Huskies defeated Oregon State and Utah while playing to a scoreless draw against Utah. The sophomore has played every minute of every match this season and has posted seven shutouts in 2014, including clean sheets in her last four matches. She will look to keep that streak going against a very tough final stretch of the season with matches against USC and UCLA this week, and Washington State next week.
Coming Up
These are the two matches to keep an eye on for the coming week’s action.
Notre Dame at Boston College (Saturday, November 1st)
In what could be a snowy affair up in Chestnut Hill, Boston College needs a win badly or its season could end very prematurely. The Eagles have lost seven of their last 10 matches and will need a good result against a Notre Dame team that has already clinched a spot in the ACC tournament starting next week. One interesting note about this game is it will be just the fifth natural home game for BC and first since September 25th, as the Eagles have played their last two home games at Brandeis University and Harvard University.
UCLA at Washington (Sunday, November 2nd)
While UCLA has dominated for another year, Washington has quietly put together a very nice season under Head Coach Lesle Gallimore. The Huskies are currently 12-4-1 overall and 5-2-1 in conference play. While a Pac-12 title might not possible for the Huskies, an outside chance at being seeded in the NCAA tournament could be possible if they run the table in their final three games, which would include a win against UCLA. Keep an eye out for Megan Kufeld in net as well as striker Jaclyn Softli, who leads Washington with 10 goals this season.
[divider]Contributors[/divider]
Rachael Caldwell will be graduating from the University of Arkansas in 2015 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and minors in Spanish and Business Management. Rachael played soccer from when she was three until her senior year of high school, where she was the captain of her state championship winning team. Rachael looks forward to writing more for Our Game Magazine and also writes about women’s soccer on her blog, rachaelfc.wordpress.com.
JJ Duke graduated from Rider University in New Jersey with a degree in Digital Media Studies. Although his playing days may have ended back in high school, he still prides himself on being a decent shot-stopper and an all-around fanatic of the beautiful game (fervent supporter of Manchester United and the founder of a Rider supporters group, the 206 Ultras). He was the Student General Manager at 107.7 FM The Bronc while at Rider and contributed to various local newspaper and Web sites in the Trenton, NJ, area of high school and collegiate sports including T and Fish4Scores.com.
Ruth Moore serves Our Game Magazine as a College Editor and the magazine’s Design Editor. She holds a degree in Professional Writing from Kutztown University, freelances in communication design and loves coffee.
Brandi Ortega designs, writes, and plays soccer in Southern California. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in English. Find her on twitter at @brandiortega.