Baylor hits crossbar in first 10 seconds of overtime. They were inches away from knocking out the Defending champs in better fashion than they did at the end of regulation. WILD GAME.
Hackin' Bears just hacked two girls down in the box. One of those had to be a penalty. None were called. Which I love it, lol. Keep this game going.
Not many goals today and some terrible PK's. USC did not even make one. Tenn made only 1. You have the team training every freakin' day! How about making sure you have 5 good takers!
Rutgers vs West Virginia playing in the evening and having to go into double OT is really good for Penn State.
Yeah, but as you know, penalty kicks in training vs penalty kicks in an NCAA tournament game are two different beasts...there's no great way to replicate that kind of pressure in training, and no way to know for sure how a player will react until she's in that situation. It's just too easy to score in training, and it doesn't replicate what the players are feeling physically and psychologically when they step up to the spot in a season-ending situation. The penalties in NC State-Princeton were *really* bad, which is a shame, as it was a great game overall, played at a very high level. I will say - I wish more players, when feeling this kind of pressure, would just smack it. All the saved penalties in this game were prodded/pushed with not nearly enough pace. Hit it like that, and it better be *right* in a corner. I'm saying this as an ex-professional goalkeeper: when it doubt, hit the thing.
There were a lot of goal scoring opportunities today in the 3rd overtime session of a ton of games today. Too bad most of the girls couldn't hit sand if they fell off a camel, and it ended up resulting in the ball going up into the 29th row.
Assuming UCLA wins, here are the 16 teams left by conference. ACC (5): UNC, Duke, Virginia, Florida State, Notre Dame Pac 12 (3): Stanford, UCLA, Washington State Big 12 (3): West Virginia, Texas, Baylor SEC (2): South Carolina, Florida Big 10 (1): Penn State WCC (1): Santa Clara Ivy (1): Princeton Most over-achieving conference: Big 12 Most under-achievement conference: SEC and Big 10 No one would have thought that the Big 12 would have as many teams in the Sweet 16 as the SEC, Big 10, and Big East combined. ACC still rules the world here.
I note that of the 16 teams remaining, 14 are from coastal states. The two non-coastal states are West Virginia and Indiana.
I find it comforting that the seeding was pretty good for the most part, as the 1s vs 4s and 2s v 3s are holding at 5 of the 8 spots. There are some exceptions of course as there have been some true upsets -- with UCF falling early, Notre Dame picking off TAMU, and Santa Clara taking advantage of of Ohio State's overlooking Vanderbilt. On Sunday #1 Stanford and #4 FSU. #1 Duke and #4 Texas. #1 UNC and #4 Princeton. #2 UCLA and #3 Virginia. #2 PSU and #3 WVA
Sunday has a slew of really good games to watch, probably the most exciting day of the whole tournament.
Well, two SEC teams last on PKs yesterday. Each could have easily won. Why did everybody play yesterday, meaning only two days of rest for the winners before the Sunday game when they could have played on Wednesday and gotten three rest days?
I don't disagree with your take but come on - USC doesn't have ONE player that is automatic from 12 yards?? And Rutgers chose a freshman from the bench to take their 5th kick, she underhit it and was saved. Really? You pull a freshman off the bench to go 5th?? I'm not arguing on the other thread. This is how it's done and everyone knows it. The poor quality and poor management of these 'kicks from the penalty mark' has been terrible.
Oh, I agree. Some of the penalties were astoundingly bad, and these kids aren't making these decisions all on their own. Someone is telling them to just roll/push the ball toward the goal, or at least, not actively discouraging them from doing that. Sure, Eden Hazard can do that, because he can strike the ball without looking at it, instead looking at the keeper and waiting for him to move. Just because he can do it doesn't mean everyone can do it!