CU Women’s Club Soccer Receives Top Regional Bid to Nationals
By Jessica Steinberg
October 28, 2008
BOULDER -- The University of Colorado Women’s Club Soccer Gold team secured the #1 seed out of Region V on Tuesday morning going into the 2008 NIRSA National Campus Championship Series. This marks the club’s 12th #1 bid since the National Championship began back in 1994 and the team’s 8th consecutive year going into the tournament as the top seed out of their region.
The Buffs (18-3-2 overall, 8-0-1 in league play) edged the Colorado State University Club Soccer Gold team for the top seed. CU Gold and CSU Gold are the only two teams in the country that have received a bid to Nationals every year since 1994, a feat which no other school can boast.
The two teams faced each other three times during the season: twice during league play and once in the inaugural University of Northern Colorado Invitational. CU won the first match-up at home on Friday Oct. 3 under the lights at Franklin Field by a score of 2-0. CSU took the next game in penalty kicks during the UNC Tournament. The teams were tied 0-0 after two 40-minute halves and two 10-minute sudden death overtimes, but CSU came out on top in the end 3-2 in PKs. The two teams’ final meeting this season took place last Friday Oct. 24. The teams again dueled to a scoreless tie at the end of regulation and because there is no overtime in league games, the game went down as 0-0 in the record books.
Although both CU Gold and CSU Gold had the same records head-to-head and in league play, the Buffs topped the Rams for the #1 bid because of their strength of schedule?including their participation in the competitive University of California Santa Barbara Invitational?and because of a better record both overall and against common non-league opponents.
The National Championship will take place from November 20-23 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The CU Women’s Gold team will be joined by the Women’s Black team and the Men’s Gold and Black teams. Both the Women’s Black team and the Men’s Black team will be competing in the Open Division at Nationals. The Men’s Gold team also secured the #1 seed out of Region V, and will be competing in the Championship Division at the National tournament.
