BIG EAST Notes - College Cup
The BIG EAST’s History In The College Cup
The BIG EAST is sending a team to the women’s soccer national semifinals for the 16th time in league history and first since 2010. BIG EAST teams are a combined 11-12-1 at the College Cup, which included a showdown between league foes in 1997 when Connecticut topped Notre Dame in the semifinals. The BIG EAST has three women’s soccer national titles to its credit, with Notre Dame winning in 1995, 2004 and 2010, and six runner-up showings. Georgetown becomes the first current member of the BIG EAST to advance to the Women’s College Cup. The second-seeded Hoyas enter Friday’s match with fellow two-seed Southern California with an 8-5-3 (.594) all-time NCAA Championship record and are 20-2-3 overall this season. USC is 17-4-2 on the year and 17-12-4 all-time in the NCAAs, including a 2007 national crown.
Breaking The Trend
The previous 10 Women’s College Cup fields have been made up entirely of schools from the five major football conferences, with the BIG EAST’s Georgetown becoming the first school outside of that group to advance to the national semifinals since Portland, out of the West Coast Conference, in 2005. Since the NCAA expanded the Women’s Soccer Championship to its current 64-team format in 2001, eight teams, including Georgetown this year, outside of the ‘football five’ have advanced to the College Cup – Portland (2005, 2002, 2001), Princeton (2004) and Santa Clara (2004, 2002, 1001), with three winning the national title (Portland – 2005, 2002; Santa Clara - 2001).
Match Info
No. 2 seed Georgetown and No. 2 seed USC square off in the Friday’s second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPNU. The first tilt features No. 2 seed North Carolina against the lone remaining No. 1 seed in West Virginia at 5 p.m. (ET). All games will be played at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif., home of the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS. Friday’s winners will face off on Sunday at 6 p.m. (ET) on ESPNU to decide the national champion.
More Good News For Georgetown
Just three days prior to playing in its first College Cup, the Hoyas received more good news as junior midfielder Rachel Corboz was named a Semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy. Corboz was one of 15 Division I women’s soccer players selected as semifinalists. The MAC Hermann Trophy is the highest individual intercollegiate award administered by the National Soccer Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), and presented annually at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis. An All-BIG EAST First Team selection, Corboz leads the team in scoring with 38 points. She is second on the team in goals scored (11) and leads the nation in assists with 16. Her 11 goals this season are tied for the sixth-most in a single season at Georgetown, while her 18 assists are the second-most in a season.