2014 College Soccer Roundup: Week 6

[dropcap size=small]W[/dropcap]eekly roundup of women’s college soccer news you might have missed. Includes the past week’s crucial games, injury reports, news of note, upcoming games to watch, and general observations about the world of women’s college soccer.

So That Happened

September 25, 2014

Notre Dame 2-0 Virginia Tech
NotreDame-100x100Virginia Tech suffered its first defeat of the season at home against Notre Dame, ending a 10-game winning streak for the Hokies. After a scoreless first half, the Fighting Irish converted their first two shots of the second, beginning with a goal from junior Anna Maria Gilbertson in the 62nd minute, followed by a 70th-minute goal by sophomore Kaleigh Olmsted. Despite leading in shots and corners, the Hokies were unable to convert and were shut out for the first time this season. Virginia Tech bounced back on Sunday with a 2-0 win over Duke, and Notre Dame closed the weekend with a 1-0 win over Wake Forest. Fighting Irish goalkeeper Kaela Little was named ACC Player of the Week for her performance.

September 26, 2014

Texas 1-0 Texas Tech
The Red Raiders have notched a couple of big wins already this season, already looking like a potential at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. Rivals Texas have been less than impressive thus far, but this win goes a long way for the Longhorns. Freshman Olivia Brook scored the game-winning goal seven minutes into the first period of extra time, and served Texas Tech its first loss of the season. Tech would rebound, but it wasn’t pretty. The Red Raiders grabbed a 3-2 win over a pesky UC Riverside. Texas wouldn’t fare as well, falling 2-0 to West Virginia.

Utah 1-1 Stanford
Stanford was able to extend its impressive streak of shutout soccer only one more half before Utah’s Mariah Elmer scored what was the equalizing goal just two minutes into the second half of play. The Cardinal’s streak ends at just over nine games of play, or for those doing the math at home, approximately 893 minutes and 58 seconds. The lone goal for the home side was scored by sophomore Megan Turner. This was the only game of the weekend for both the Cardinal and the Utes.

September 28, 2014

Florida State 1-0 Virginia
FloridaState-100x100The Cavaliers were another team to fall from the ranks of the unbeaten this weekend, ending their impressive 17-game ACC regular season win streak. It was also the first time in 44 games that Virginia hasn’t scored a goal. Florida State’s only goal was scored early by senior Dagny Brynjarsdottir, and it proved to be enough as the Seminoles’ defense held the visitors to just four shots on goal. This was the home side’s only game of the weekend, and extended its current win streak to six games and current shutout streak to three games. This was also Virginia’s only game.

Nebraska 4-3 Maryland
It was an overtime thriller in Lincoln this past weekend that gave Nebraska a much needed Big Ten conference victory. After starting conference play with an 0-2-2 record, this match became a must-win situation for a Cornhusker side looking to repeat the success it had in 2013. In a back-and-forth affair, Nebraska fell behind in the second minute before seeing forward Caroline Gray smash home a long distance effort in the 17th minute. Mayme Conroy and Jaycie Johnson also scored for Nebraska but a Shade Pratt goal in the 76th minute tied things at 3-3 and Maryland nearly stole a result on the stroke of full time with a deflected effort off the crossbar. But Conroy scored her second of the afternoon in the 96th minute to give Nebraska its first Big Ten win of the season before traveling to Michigan on Thursday.

In and Out

The time was right for USC and Clemson to finally take their places in the Our Game Magazine Top 25 this week. The Trojans suffered from none of UCLA’s or Stanford’s inability to win in their Pac-12 openers, as they went on the road and shut out Arizona, 3-0. Clemson took on ranked foes North Carolina and Boston College in the second week of ACC play, dropping 1-2 to North Carolina but defeating Boston College, 1-0, on the road. Clemson’s only other loss this season was against another top 10 opponent, Virginia Tech. Portland plummeted from the rankings just ahead of conference play after two winless weekends heading into conference play. Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Seattle on the road could have been indication enough, but a 2-3 loss to Washington at Merlo Field sealed the Pilots’ fate. Arkansas slipped out more quietly with a couple of draws in SEC play, including a 1-1 match with Ole Miss and 3-3 match with LSU.

Top Performers

Kaela Little (Notre Dame) — Notre Dame traveled to face off against Virginia Tech and Wake Forest this past week and came away with a pair of shutouts, in large part due to goalkeeper Kaela Little. The sophomore held Virginia Tech, one of the top scoring offenses in the nation, scoreless in the midweek and collected five saves in a 2-0 win. Little followed that performance with an equally effective, four-save clean sheet in a 1-0 win at Wake Forest. She has six shutouts this season and will be a key factor when Notre Dame squares off against Virginia on Sunday.

Tatiana Coleman (UCF) — The Knights put together another solid effort on the road this past week, defeating former Conference USA and now current American Athletic Conference foes Memphis 2-1, and Tulsa 4-1 this week. Senior forward Tatiana Coleman continued her fine form this season, scoring in the win over Memphis and delivering a pair of assists in the win at Tulsa. Coleman now has seven goals and six assists (tops for UCF in both categories) and UCF will look to extend its six-match winning streak this week against Southern Methodist and Houston.

Coming Up

Florida vs. Texas A&M (Friday, October 3rd)
This match, as previously mentioned, will be the premier match to watch during the SEC regular season as the Florida Gators travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M at Ellis Field. In an OGM Top 10 matchup, both squads are coming off of perfect 2-0 weekends and the result of this match could determine the top seeds in the SEC conference tournament next month. Two key things to watch out for in this match include Florida’s midfield duo of Annie Speese and Havana Solaun and whether they can find room to create and supply service to Savannah Jordan. The other key is how well the duo of Shea Groom and Kelley Monogue — who have combined for 19 goals in 11 games this season — will handle going against one of the more talented defenses in the NCAA as Florida has only allowed seven goals in 10 matches. So it will be crucial for the Aggies to control the play in between the boxes and put pressure on Florida’s defense.

Injury Report

During North Carolina’s 2-1 win over N.C. State, Brooke Elby was injured in what is being called a lower body injury. New Zealand international and Tennessee forward Hannah Wilkinson suffered an MCL injury in the Lady Vols’ double overtime loss to Alabama. According Wilkinson’s twitter, she will not be out for the 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.