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2002 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament

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Country
  
United States

Teams
  
64

Dates
  
November 14–December 8, 2002

Champions
  
Portland Pilots (1st title, 7th College Cup)

Runners-up
  
Santa Clara Broncos (2nd title match, 9th College Cup)

Semi-finalists
  
North Carolina Tar Heels (21st College Cup) Penn State Nittany Lions (2nd College Cup)

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.

Contents

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 number of goals scored by a single player during a Women's College Cup tournament.

Qualification

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.

National Seeds

  1. Stanford
  2. North Carolina
  3. Pepperdine
  4. Connecticut
  5. West Virginia
  6. Santa Clara
  7. UCLA
  8. Portland

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

    • References

    2002 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA