2016 NCAA College Cup Final Four
Georgetown looks to advance to first soccer national championship (Rafael Suanes/Georgetown Athletics)
The 2016 College Cup kicks off this evening at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California. Two programs make their College Cup debuts tonight while the remaining two have found themselves here before. West Virginia and Georgetown are the newcomers to the late season party and are looking to claim their first national championship in program history. USC won its lone championship in 2007 when they finished 20-3-2 and defeated Florida State in the title game. The UNC Tar Heels are the only program to be invited to all 35 of the NCAA Soccer Tournaments since it began in 1982. UNC has won 21 national titles and are looking to back on top for the first time since 2012. All of this are the makings of some incredible soccer in San Jose.
UNC and West Virginia have only played once before with the Tar Heels winning the match 4-2 in the 2013 Duke Nike Classic. The Tar Heels storied program is looking for yet another National championship after earning an at-large big into the tourney after losing in the ACC Tournament to Florida State. UNC Freshman, Bridgette Andrzejewski was named the ACC Freshman of the Year and is Carolinas leading scorer with nine goals and two assists for 20 points. The Tar Heels advanced to the national semifinals by defeating Liberty 3-0 in the first round, Kansas 2-0 in the second round and 1-0 wins over Clemson and South Carolina. UNC has only allowed one goal in their last eight matches.
West Virginia is the last remaining #1 seed in the tournament. Led by ESPNW player of the year, Kadeisha Buchanan the Mountaineers have built a competitive program in Morgantown. The 2016 Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament champions are looking to bring their first ever title to back to West Virginia but face a tough, defensive minded team in North Carolina. WVU ranks second in the nation in Goals-Against Average, giving up only three goals in the last 32 halves played. Freshman Rylee Foster is the nations best keeper with a .271 GAA in 15 starts for the Mountaineers.
This will be a low scoring contest so watch out for that first score of the game. It could be the decider.
Last year the Trojans advanced to the Round of 16 before falling to host Virginia. As coach Keidane McAlpine has shown he can help turn around a program and in his third year at the helm, USC is into just their second ever College Cup appearance. The 2007 team had great success winning the first and only title in program history, they were also at the moment the first Pac-12 team to claim a national title. Morgan Andrews has been incredible this season and shines when the lights seem the brightest. Andrews has scored seven goals in the last seven postseason games for the Trojans. USC was on the brink of elimination in the second round when the match against Texas A&M finished in a draw and the teams went to penalty kicks. USC won 4-3 on PK's and Sammy Jo Prudhomme is a huge reason why! The Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the year has posted back to back shutouts since and looks to bring the Trojans back into the national championship.
This season the Hoyas went from an unranked preseason team to a staple in the top 10. Not only that Georgetown took down at the time #1 West Virginia this year and finished the season with only two losses. The team finished with four wins over ranked opponents and had a very competitive game with then #3 Stanford on August 19th. The Hoyas bring in the seventh best offense in the country and the second highest scoring attack in the land with 61 total goals scored. Junior Rachel Corboz is one of 15 players named as a semifinalist to the MAC Hermann Trophy, she leads the team with 38 points on the season scoring 11 goals and notching 16 assists. Georgetown is a possession team and like to control the pace of the game, sophomore goalkeeper, Arielle Schechtman carries a .52 GAA into this matchup and will look to send the Hoyas into their first ever national championship.
Both teams are very similar in this contest, they stick to their game plans and don't deter from what got them to the semis in the first place. This game could get interesting if the offenses can find space but look for another low scoring game here.
