Stanford, Notre Dame expected to meet in final

Stanford, Notre Dame expected to meet in final
November 30, 2010

Three months of matches, countless wins, losses, bumps and bruises later and here’s what we’re left with:

Stanford, Boston College, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

It’s been a fun ride.

Runaway train: Tournament favorite Stanford advanced to its third straight College Cup with a we’re-the-best-team-in-the-country-and-we-know-it style 5-0 dominant win over Florida State on Friday. Five different Cardinal players scored a goal including Christen Press (who is hoping her team can avoid PKs for the next two games) as she tied the single-season Stanford record of 26 goals set by Kelley O’Hara last year and broke Marcie Ward’s 2004 assist mark with the 41st helper of her career. Stanford is looking unstoppable as they move closer to the national title that has eluded them.

boston college women's college soccer player kristen mewisKristen Mewis and the BC Eagles are in their first Final Four ever.
Skill of the Irish: If there’s one team that’s looked every bit as impressive as Stanford, it’s Notre Dame which climbed into its fifth consecutive Cup appearance with a 2-0 win against Oklahoma State on Friday. The Fighting Irish have been absolutely spectacular, particularly on the defensive side as goalkeeper Nikki Weiss has posted three shutouts in the team’s four postseason games. Elizabeth Tucker had a pair of goals in the team’s latest win and it’s starting to feel a little inevitable that Notre Dame and Stanford hook up for what would be a prestigious final.

Storylines: Two of the better underdog stories of the tournament officially came to an end this past weekend when Washington and Georgetown were knocked out of their regional final. The Huskies took Boston College to overtime before falling 1-0 while the Hoyas were taken down by Ohio State 2-0 in what was their deepest run ever in the tourney.

The other two: Ohio State and Boston College will both be making their first trip to the Final Four. For the Buckeyes, that means a date with 2004 champion Notre Dame, while the Eagles get a date with No. 1 Stanford.

If you’re a BC fan looking for a good omen, you’ll recall that the Eagles opened their season with a 1-1 tie against Stanford. Of course, that was three months ago … Still, Boston College has dynamic sophomore attackers Kristen Mewis and Victoria DiMartino and a dynamite veteran goalkeeper in Jillian Mastroianni so they’re more than capable of competing.

The Buckeyes too have received strong goalkeeping play from Katie Baumgardner and the rest of the defense. Ohio State was nearly sent home in each of the first two rounds – needing Danielle Scoliere’s first career goal in the 106th minute to beat St. Francis (PA)(w) before going into PKs to outlast Dayton. Maybe it’s destiny for Ohio State. Or, more likely, they enjoyed a banner season and are ripe to be picked off by a focused Notre Dame program.

We’ll have our answers, and our national championship matchup, come Friday. At last.

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