Country United States | Teams 64 | |
Dates November 14–December 7, 2008 Champions North Carolina Tar Heels
(19th title, 23rd College Cup) Runners-up Notre Dame Fighting Irish
(6th title match, 10th College Cup) Semi-finalists Stanford Cardinal
(2nd College Cup)
UCLA Bruins
(6th College Cup) | ||
The 2008 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament (also known as the 2008 Women's College Cup) was the 27th 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 WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina from December 5–7, 2008 while the preceding rounds were played at various sites across the country from November 14–29.
Contents
North Carolina defeated Notre Dame in the final, 2–1, to win their nineteenth national title. This was a rematch of the 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2006 tournament finals, all won by the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels (25–1–2) were coached by Anson Dorrance.
The Most Outstanding Offensive Player was Casey Nogueira from North Carolina, and the Most Outstanding Defensive Player was Carrie Drew from Notre Dame. Nogueira and Drew, alongside nine other players, were named to the All-Tournament Team.
The tournament's leading scorers were KayAnne Gummersall from Duke (4 goals, 1 assist), Kerri Hanks from Notre Dame (4 goals, 1 assist), Casey Nogueira from North Carolina (2 goals, 5 assists), and McCall Zerboni from UCLA (4 goals, 1 assist).
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 hosted four team-regionals on their home fields (with some exceptions, noted below) during the tournament's first weekend.