2016 NCAA Division I women's soccer season explained

Competition:	NCAA Division I women's soccer
Season:	2016
Winners:	USC (2nd title)
Prevseason:	2015
Nextseason:	2017

The 2016 NCAA Division I women's soccer season was the 35th season of NCAA championship women's college soccer. The Penn State Nittany Lions were the defending national champions.

Changes from 2015

Conference realignment

School	Previous conference	New conference
Coastal Carolina	Big South Conference	Sun Belt Conference^[1]
Kansas State	No team	Independent^[2]

Season overview

Polls

See also: 2016 NCAA Division I women's soccer rankings.

Pre-season polls

NSCAA^[3] Rank Team 1 Florida State 2 Penn State 3 Duke 4 Virginia 5 Stanford 6 West Virginia 7 Florida 8 Texas A&M 9 North Carolina 10 Rutgers 11 USC 12 Auburn 13 Notre Dame 14 Clemson 15 Connecticut 16 BYU 17 Virginia Tech 18 California 19 Texas Tech 20 Arizona 21 Santa Clara 22 Ole Miss 23 Ohio State 24 South Carolina 25 Loyola Marymount

Soccer America^[4] Rank Team 1 Stanford 2 Duke 3 Florida State 4 West Virginia 5 Penn State 6 Florida 7 Virginia 8 USC 9 Texas A&M 10 Clemson 11 Connecticut 12 North Carolina 13 Rutgers 14 Auburn 15 California 16 BYU 17 UCLA 18 Wisconsin 19 Notre Dame 20 Virginia Tech 21 Texas Tech 22 Ohio State 23 South Carolina 24 Arizona 25 Boston College

Top Drawer Soccer Rank Team 1 Stanford 2 Florida State 3 Duke 4 Penn State 5 West Virginia 6 Virginia 7 Florida 8 USC 9 Connecticut 10 Clemson 11 Rutgers 12 North Carolina 13 Texas A&M 14 Auburn 15 California 16 Wisconsin 17 BYU 18 Arizona 19 Minnesota 20 Virginia Tech 21 Ohio State 22 Santa Clara 23 Ole Miss 24 FGCU 25 Boston College

Hero Sports Rank Team 1 Penn State 2 Stanford 3 Florida State 4 Duke 5 West Virginia 6 USC 7 Virginia 8 Florida 9 Clemson 10 Virginia Tech 11 Texas A&M 12 North Carolina 13 BYU 14 California 15 South Carolina 16 Texas Tech 17 Santa Clara 18 Minnesota 19 Connecticut 20 Notre Dame 21 Arizona 22 Auburn 23 Washington State 24 Ohio State 25 Rutgers

Final polls

NSCAA^[5] Rank Team 1 USC 2 West Virginia 3 Georgetown 4 North Carolina 5 South Carolina 6 Stanford 7 Duke 8 Auburn 9 BYU 10 Florida 11 Virginia 12 Clemson 13 UCLA 14 Florida State 15 Minnesota 16 Utah 17 Santa Clara 18 Northwestern 19 Arkansas 20 Connecticut 21 Notre Dame 22 Pepperdine 23 Colorado 24 NC State 25 Rutgers

Soccer America^[6] Rank Team 1 West Virginia 2 Stanford 3 Florida 4 South Carolina 5 Georgetown 6 BYU 7 Florida State 8 North Carolina 9 USC 10 Notre Dame 11 Clemson 12 Connecticut 13 Minnesota 14 Duke 15 Virginia 16 Colorado 17 Arkansas 18 Auburn 19 Utah 20 UCLA 21 Rutgers 22 Northwestern 23 Cal 24 Penn State 25 Pepperdine

Top Drawer Soccer Rank Team 1 USC 2 West Virginia 3 Georgetown 4 North Carolina 5 South Carolina 6 Duke 7 Auburn 8 Santa Clara 9 Stanford 10 BYU 11 Florida 12 Connecticut 13 Clemson 14 UCLA 15 Virginia 16 Arkansas 17 Pepperdine 18 Rutgers 19 Florida State 20 Kansas 21 Minnesota 22 Notre Dame 23 NC State 24 Northwestern 25 Colorado

Hero Sports Rank Team 1 USC 2 West Virginia 3 Stanford 4 BYU 5 Georgetown 6 North Carolina 7 South Carolina 8 Virginia 9 UCLA 10 Florida 11 Auburn 12 Santa Clara 13 Minnesota 14 Duke 15 Clemson 16 Utah 17 Cal 18 Florida State 19 Notre Dame 20 Colorado 21 Arkansas 22 Penn State 23 Oklahoma 24 Pepperdine 25 Long Beach State

Major upsets

Date	Winner	Score	Loser
August 19, 2016	21 Santa Clara		11 USC
August 19, 2016	Pepperdine		20 Arizona
August 21, 2016	Oklahoma		25 Loyola Marymount
August 22, 2016	Nebraska		14 BYU
August 25, 2016	Michigan		12 Notre Dame
August 25, 2016	Washington State		13 Santa Clara
August 26, 2016	Arkansas		2 Duke
September 5, 2016	South Alabama		1 Florida State
September 22, 2016	Vanderbilt		14 Texas A&M
September 25, 2016	Alabama		14 Texas A&M

Conference winners and tournaments

Conference	Regular Season Champion(s)	Conference Player(s) of the Year	Conference Coach(es) of the Year	Conference Tournament	Tournament Venue (City)	Tournament Winner
	Albany Hartford	B. Murphy, UNH (Off) C. Smallfield, Hartford (Def) ^[7]	Brendan Faherty, SB	2016 Tournament	Campus Sites (Higher Seed)	Albany
	UConn	S. Ribeiro, UConn (Off) S. Fredriksson, UCF (Co-Def) T. Patterson, UConn (Co-Def) ^[8]	Len Tsantiris, UConn Chris Petrucelli, SMU	2016 Tournament	Morrone Stadium (Storrs, CT)	UConn
	St. Joseph's	D. Mills, Saint Joseph’s (Off) K. Bright, St. Louis (Def) ^[9]	Jess Manella, Saint Joe’s	2016 Tournament	URI Complex (Kingston, RI)	Dayton
	Clemson Notre Dame	A. Shaffer, Virginia (Off) C. Gibbons, Duke (Def) ^[10]	Eddie Radwanski, Clem.	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: MUSC Health Stadium (Charleston)	Florida State
	FGCU	T. Tindell, FGCU (Off) N. Rawlins, Lipscomb (Def) ^[11]	Kevin O'Brien, Lipscomb	2016 Tournament	First Round: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: FGCU Complex (Fort Myers, FL)	FGCU
	West Virginia	M. Abam, WVU (Co-Off) C. Dike, OK State (Co-Off) K. Buchanan, WVU (Def) ^[12]	Nikki Izzo-Brown, WVU	2016 Tournament	Swope Soccer Village (Kansas City)	West Virginia
	DePaul Marquette	A. Reed, DePaul (Off) M. Proffitt, Marquette (Def) ^[13]	Markus Roeders, Marq.	2016 Tournament	First Round: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Shaw Field (Washington, D.C.)	Georgetown
	Idaho	C. Williams, EWU (Off) R. Leonard, Sac. St. (Def) ^[14]	Randy Dedinim, Sac. St.^[15]	2016 Tournament	EWU Complex (Cheney, WA)	Eastern Washington
Big South	High Point	K. Perrell, High Point (Off) H. Van Noord, Liberty (Def) ^[16]	Marty Beall, High Point	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Bryan Park (Greensboro, NC)	Liberty
	Minnesota Northwestern Penn State	S. Kolander, Minnesota (Off) R. Beal, Minnesota (Def) ^[17]	Stefanie Golan, Minn.	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Robbie Stadium (St. Paul, MN)	Minnesota
	Cal St Northridge	A. Gonzales, LBSU (Off) N. Thompson, CSUN (Def) ^[18]	Keith West, CSUN	2016 Tournament	George Allen Field (Long Beach, CA)	Long Beach St.
	Northeastern	A. Herndon, JMU (Off) C. Ogunsami, Drexel (Co-Def) C. Logsdon, W&M (Co-Def) ^[19]	Ray Goon, Drexel	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Parsons Field (Brookline, MA)	Northeastern
	North Texas	M. Thomas, Charlotte (Off) J. Fichera, Rice (Def) ^[20]	Jason Neidell, WKU	2016 Tournament	Transamerica Field (Charlotte, NC)	Charlotte
	Milwaukee	M. Hamblin, NKU (Off) R. DeLuca, Det. Mercy (Def) ^[21]	Troy Fabiano, Milw.	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Engelmann Stadium (Milwaukee, WI)	Northern Kentucky
	Harvard	M. Purce, Harvard (Off) C. Etzel, Brown (Def) ^[22]	Chris Hamblin, Harvard	No Tournament
MAAC	Monmouth	A. McTamney, Monmouth (Off) T. Sobierjaski, Siena (Def) ^[23]	Krissy Turner, Mon.	2016 Tournament	First Round: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Hesse Field (West Long Branch, NJ)	Monmouth
	Ball State	J. Hellstrom, Kent St. (Off) L. White, Ball St. (Def) ^[24]	Rob Marinaro, Kent St.	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Dix Stadium (Kent, OH)	Kent State
	Illinois State	L. Koehl, Illinois St. (Off) P. Jarsombeck, Ill. St. (Def) ^[25]	Eric Golz, Illinois St.	2016 Tournament	First Round: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Adelaide Street Field (Normal, IL)	Illinois State
	UNLV	L. Sender, UNLV (Off) C. Akubuilo, UNLV (Def) ^[26]	Chris Shaw, UNLV	2016 Tournament	SDSU Sports Deck (San Diego)	UNLV
	Central Connecticut Saint Francis (PA)	G. Morales, SFPA (Off) J. Cafferky, CCSU (Def) ^[27]	Brenda van Stralen, SFU	2016 Tournament	Stokes Soccerplex (Loretto, PA)	Saint Francis (PA)
	Murray State	H. Withers, Murray St. (Off) K. Naerdemann, TN Tech (Def) ^[28]	Nick Flohre, EKU	2016 Tournament	First Round: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Cutchin Field (Murray, KY)	SIU Edwardsville
	Stanford	A. Sullivan, Stanford (Off) M. Freeman, USC (Def) ^[29]	Paul Ratcliffe, Stanford	No Tournament
	Boston U Bucknell	K. Ham, Bucknell (Off) R. Bloznalis, Boston U (Def) ^[30]	Kelly Cook, Bucknell	2016 Tournament	Quarterfinals: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Emmitt Field (Lewisburg, PA)	Bucknell
	South Carolina	S. McCaskill, S. Carolina (Off) K. Kurtz, S. Carolina (Def) ^[31]	Shelley Smith, SC	2016 Tournament	Orange Beach Sportsplex (Orange Beach, AL)	Florida
	Samford	O. Cole, Samford (Def) ^[32]	Todd Yelton, Samford	2016 Tournament	First Rd. & Quarters: Campus Sites Semifinals & Final: Taylor Stadium (Johnson City, TN)	Samford
	Cent. Arkansas	C. Bassett, Cent. Arkansas (Off) K. Roberts, Abilene Chr. (Def) ^[33]	Jeremy Bishop, C. Ark.	2016 Tournament	Dugan Stadium (Corpus Christi, TX)	Houston Baptist
	Denver North Dakota St.	L. Jones, Oral Roberts (Off) M. Bothner, Denver (Def) ^[34]	Roger Bush, ORU	2016 Tournament	Dacotah Field (Fargo, ND)	South Dakota St.
	South Alabama	J. Cline, App. State (Off) J. Purfield, S. Alabama (Def) ^[35]	Keyton Wheelock, ULM	2016 Tournament	Foley Sports Complex (Foley, AL)	South Alabama
	Howard	A. Lewis, Alabama St. (Co-Off) L. Issaka, Miss. Vall. St. (Co-Off) K. Hamilton, Howard (Def) ^[36]	Brent Leiba, Howard	2016 Tournament		Alabama State
	BYU Pepperdine	M. Vasconcelos, BYU (Off) T. Isom, BYU (Def)^[37]	Tim Ward, Pepperdine	No Tournament
	Seattle	B. Hooks, Seattle (Off) S. Spiekerman, Seattle (Def) ^[38]	Gary Curneen, CSUB	2016 Tournament	Durwood Soccer Stadium (Kansas City)	Seattle

See also

• College soccer
• List of NCAA Division I women's soccer programs
• 2016 in American soccer
• 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament
• 2016 NCAA Division I men's soccer season

Notes and References

1. Coastal Carolina to Join Sun Belt Conference . Sun Belt Conference . September 1, 2015 . September 8, 2015.
2. K-State Soccer Announces 2017 Schedule . Kansas State Wildcats . April 10, 2017 . June 27, 2017 . Notes about 2017 K-State Soccer Schedule: First season as a member of the Big 12 Conference... . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170513151012/http://www.kstatesports.com/news/k-state-soccer-announces-2017-schedule-04-10-2017 . May 13, 2017 .
3. Web site: NSCAA NCAA Division I Women National Preseason Ranking. National Soccer Coaches Association of America. NSCAA.com. August 3, 2016. August 2, 2016. August 6, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160806071136/http://www.nscaa.com/web/Rankings/web/rankings/2016/Preseason/NCAA_DI_WOMEN.aspx. dead.
4. Web site: Soccer America Women's Top 25. Soccer America. August 22, 2016.
5. Web site: National - Final Ranking - December 7, 2016. NSCAA. 2016-12-06. 2016-12-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20161220075353/http://www.nscaa.com/web/Rankings/College_Rankings/NCAA_DI_WOMEN/web/rankings/ncaa/6081. dead.
6. Web site: Soccer America Women's Top 25. Soccer America. 2016-11-07.
7. Web site:
   1. AEWSOC Award Winners
   . 2016-10-26. America East Conference.
8. Web site: American Conference WSOC Awards. 2016-11-01. American Athletic Conference.
9. Web site: A-10 WSOC Awards. 2016-11-02. Atlantic 10 Conference.
10. Web site: ACC WSOC Awards. 2016-11-03. ACC. https://web.archive.org/web/20170712054251/http://www.theacc.com/news/acc-announces-2016-women-s-soccer-awards-11-03-2016. 2017-07-12. dead.
11. Web site:
    1. ASUNWSOC Postseason Awards
    . 2016-10-26. Atlantic Sun Conference.
12. Web site: All-Big 12 Soccer Awards. 2016-10-31. Big 12 Conference.
13. Web site: Big East WSOC Awards. 2016-11-01. Big East Conference.
14. Web site: Big Sky WSOC All-Conference. 2016-11-01. Big Sky Conference.
15. Web site: Big Sky WSOC Coach of the Year. 2016-11-07. Big Sky Conference.
16. Web site: Big South WSOC Annual Awards. 2016-10-28. Big South Conference.
17. Web site: Big Ten WSOC Postseason Honors. https://web.archive.org/web/20161031034732/http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/102816aaa.html. dead. 2016-10-31. 2016-10-28. Big Ten Conference.
18. Web site: Big West WSOC All-Conference. 2016-11-02. Big West Conference.
19. Web site: CAA WSOC Awards. 2016-11-03. Colonial Athletic Association.
20. Web site: All-Conference USA Awards. 2016-11-01. Conference USA.
21. Web site: Horizon League WSOC Awards. 2016-10-31. Horizon League. https://web.archive.org/web/20170328052121/http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/horizon-league-announces-womens-soccer-awards. 2017-03-28. dead.
22. Web site: Ivy League WSOC Awards. 2016-11-10. Ivy League. https://web.archive.org/web/20161119060255/http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/wsoc/2016-17/releases/Womens_Soccer_All-Ivy-_Postseason_Awards_Announced. 2016-11-19. dead.
23. Web site: MAAC WSOC Major Awards. 2016-11-03. Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
24. Web site: MAC Postseason Awards. 2016-11-03. Mid-American Conference.
25. Web site: MVC WSOC All-Conference. 2016-11-03. Missouri Valley Conference. https://web.archive.org/web/20161105094646/http://www.mvc-sports.com/wsoccer/news/2016-17/9111/2016-mvc-womens-soccer-all-conference/. 2016-11-05. dead.
26. Web site: Mountain West All-Conference Teams. 2016-10-31. Mountain West Conference. https://web.archive.org/web/20161105033003/http://www.themw.com/news/mountain-west-announces-2016-women-s-soccer-all-conference-teams-10-31-2016. 2016-11-05. dead.
27. Web site: WSOC All-NEC Awards. 2016-11-03. Northeast Conference.
28. Web site: OVC Soccer Postseason Awards. 2016-11-03. Ohio Valley Conference.
29. Web site: Pac-12 WSOC Honor. https://web.archive.org/web/20161110110046/http://pac-12.com/article/2016/11/08/pac-12-announces-women%E2%80%99s-soccer-all-conference-honors. dead. November 10, 2016. 2016-11-08. Pac-12 Conference.
30. Web site: All-Patriot League Awards. 2016-10-31. Patriot League.
31. Web site: SEC Soccer Awards. 2016-10-30. SEC.
32. Web site: SoCon All-Conference Teams. 2016-10-30. SoCon.
33. Web site: All-Southland Conference Teams. 2016-11-01. Southland Conference.
34. Web site:
    1. SummitWSOC Awards
    . 2016-11-02. Summit League.
35. Web site: 2016 All-Sun Belt Conference Awards. 2016-11-01. Sun Belt Conference.
36. Web site: 2016 SWAC Soccer Awards. 2016-11-02. SWAC.
37. Web site: WCC All-Conference Teams. 2016-11-08. West Coast Conference. https://web.archive.org/web/20170810072243/http://www.wccsports.com/news/wcc-announces-2016-women-s-soccer-all-conference-team-11-08-2016. 2017-08-10. dead.
38. Web site: 2016 WAC Women's Soccer Awards. 2016-11-02. WAC. https://web.archive.org/web/20161107014709/http://wacsports.com/news/2016/11/1/WSOC_1101164814.aspx. 2016-11-07. dead.