2002 NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament explained

NCAA women's soccer tournament
Year:	2002
Other Titles:	Women's College Cup (semifinals & final)
Country:	United States
Dates:	November 14 – December 8, 2002
Num Teams:	64
Champions:	Portland Pilots (1st title, 7th College Cup)
Runner-Up:	Santa Clara Broncos (2nd title match, 9th College Cup)
Semi-Finalist1:	North Carolina Tar Heels (21st College Cup)
Semi-Finalist2:	Penn State Nittany Lions (2nd College Cup)
Matches:	63
Goals:	177
Attendance:	59410
Top Goal Scorer:	Christine Sinclair, UP (10G, 1A)
Player:	Christine Sinclair, UP (Offensive) Jessica Ballweg, SCU (Defensive)
Prevseason:	2001
Nextseason:	2003
Updated:	7/5/2015

The 2002 NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament (also known as the 2002 Women's College Cup) was the 21st annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I women's collegiate soccer. The semifinals and championship game were played at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas from December 6–8, 2002.^[1]

Portland defeated Santa Clara in the final, 2–1 (in two overtimes), to win their first national title. The Pilots (20–4–2) were coached by Clive Charles. This was only the second title match, to date, to not feature North Carolina (the other was in 1998).

The most outstanding offensive player was Christine Sinclair from Portland, and the most outstanding defensive player was Jessica Ballweg from Santa Clara. Sinclair and Ballweg, along with nine other players, were named to the All-Tournament team.

Sinclair was also the tournament's leading scorer, with a record 10 goals. This remains, as of 2015, the most goals scored by a single player during a Women's College Cup tournament.

Qualification

See main article: article.

All Division I women's soccer programs were eligible to qualify for the tournament. The tournament field remained fixed at 64 teams.

Format

Just as before, the final two rounds, deemed the Women's College Cup, were played at a pre-determined neutral site. All other rounds were played on campus sites at the home field of the higher-seeded team. The only exceptions were the first two rounds, which were played at regional campus sites. The top sixteen teams, only eight of which were actually seeded, hosted four teams at their home fields during the tournament's first weekend.^[2]

National seeds

1. Stanford (18–1-0)
2. North Carolina (17–1–4)
3. Pepperdine (16–1–2)
4. Connecticut (18–2–1)
5. West Virginia (17–2–1)
6. Santa Clara (15–4–1)
7. UCLA (16–3-0)
8. Portland (14–4–2)

Records

valign=top	Stanford Regional Seed School Conference Berth Type Record BYU Mountain West Automatic 16–5-0 Cal Poly Big West Automatic 14–6-0 California Pac-10 At-large 11–7–1 Charlotte Conference USA At-large 16–1–2 Clemson ACC At-large 14–6-0 Denver Sun Belt Automatic 17–1–2 Eastern Illinois Ohio Valley Automatic 12–7–2 Idaho State Big Sky Automatic 13–6–1 James Madison CAA Automatic 12–7–3 Notre Dame Big East At-large 11–7-0 Ohio State Big Ten Automatic 8–10–3 8 Portland West Coast At-large 14–4–2 Purdue Big Ten At-large 13–4–3 Richmond Atlantic 10 Automatic 13–5–2 1 Stanford Pac-10 Automatic 18–1-0 Utah Mountain West At-large 12–3–3	valign=top	Connecticut Regional Seed School Conference Berth Type Record American Patriot Automatic 10–8–2 Auburn SEC At-large 14–4–2 Central Conn. State Northeast Automatic 14–5–1 4 Connecticut Big East Automatic 18–2–1 Dartmouth Ivy League At-large 12–4–1 Dayton Atlantic 10 At-large 17–3-0 Florida State ACC At-large 11–6–3 Loyola (MD) MAAC Automatic 12–5–2 Maryland ACC At-large 12–7–1 Mississippi SEC At-large 13–4–2 Penn State Big Ten At-large 15–3–1 Princeton Ivy League Automatic 13–2–1 Rhode Island Atlantic 10 At-large 15–4–1 UCF Atlantic Sun Automatic 18–4-0 Virginia ACC At-large 11–6–2 5 West Virginia Big East At-large 17–2–1
valign=top	Pepperdine Regional Seed School Conference Berth Type Record Arizona State Pac-10 At-large 11–6–2 Creighton Missouri Valley Automatic 12–7–2 Hartford America East Automatic 14–6-0 Marquette Conference USA At-large 13–7–3 Miami (OH) MAC Automatic 18–2–2 Michigan Big Ten At-large 13–5–2 Michigan State Big Ten At-large 12–6–2 Milwaukee Horizon Automatic 11–5–5 Nebraska Big 12 Automatic 14–5–3 Oakland Mid-Continent Automatic 10–11–1 3 Pepperdine West Coast Auto (shared) 16–1–2 6 Santa Clara West Coast Auto (shared) 15–4–1 Villanova Big East At-large 14–2–4 Washington State Pac-10 At-large 11–6–2 Wisconsin Big Ten At-large 12–7–3 Yale Ivy League At-large 11–4–2	valign=top	North Carolina Regional Seed School Conference Berth Type Record Cincinnati Conference USA Automatic 16–3–3 Furman Southern Automatic 16–5–1 Kentucky SEC At-large 11–8-0 Loyola Marymount West Coast At-large 10–6–3 2 North Carolina ACC Automatic 17–1–4 Northwestern State Southland Automatic 12–5–5 Radford Big South Automatic 15–4–1 San Diego West Coast At-large 11–6–3 SMU WAC Automatic 12–5–4 Tennessee SEC Automatic 16–5–1 Texas Big 12 At-large 15–4–1 Texas A&M Big 12 At-large 17–4–1 7 UCLA Pac-10 At-large 16–3-0 USC Pac-10 At-large 10–7–3 Wake Forest ACC At-large 12–7–1 William & Mary CAA At-large 13–6–1

Bracket

College Cup

All-tournament team

• Lauren Arase, Portland
• Jessica Ballweg, Santa Clara (most outstanding defensive player)
• Devyn Hawkins, Santa Clara
• Joanna Lohman, Penn State
• Erin Misaki, Portland
• Lauren Orlandos, Portland
• Catherine Reddick, North Carolina
• Christine Sinclair, Portland (most outstanding offensive player)
• Lindsay Tarpley, North Carolina
• Aly Wagner, Santa Clara
• Veronica Zepeda, Santa Clara

See also

• NCAA Women's Soccer Championships (Division II, Division III)
• NCAA Men's Soccer Championships (Division I, Division II, Division III)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Division I Women's Soccer Championship Results . NCAA. NCAA.org. July 5, 2015.
2. Web site: 2002 Division I Tournament. Soccer Times. SoccerTimes.com. July 5, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924103255/http://www.soccertimes.com/ncaa/2002/womentourney.htm. September 24, 2015. dead.