The Conference USA tournament Having been to a couple of these tournaments in past years, I wish I could be there. C-USA is an emerging conference; it gets better every year. Charlotte, Cincinnati and Marquette have all been ranked at various times in various polls this year. 2002 Conference USA WOMEN’S SOCCER TOURNAMENT When: November 6-9, 2002 Where: Transamerica Field, Charlotte, NC Who: The top 8 teams in the C-USA standings (single table) Format: 8 team, single elimination Schedule: Nov. 6 First round games at 12:00, 2:30, 5:00 and 7:30 pm Nov. 7 Semifinals at 5:00 and 7:30 pm Nov. 9 Championship game at 2:00 pm Ticket Information: Adult Tournament Pass - $15 Child Tournament Pass - $6 Adult Day Session - $6 Child Day Session - $3 All C-USA students admitted free with ID C-USA consists of 14 teams, divided into divisions for scheduling purposes only. Tournament qualification is based on a single table. Each team plays 10 games against conference opponents (6 in the division and 4 outside the division) Current standings (through October 19) are below. The top 8 qualify for the C-USA tournament) Code: [font=courier]Team GP W-L-T Pts. W-L-T Charlotte 7 6-0-1 13 12-0-1 Cincinnati 6 4-0-2 10 10-2-2 Saint Louis 6 4-1-1 9 11-3-1 East Carolina 7 3-2-2 8 7-4-3 Marquette 7 3-2-2 8 9-4-2 UAB 7 4-3-0 8 7-7-1 Houston 6 2-2-2 6 6-6-2 DePaul 7 3-4-0 6 8-6-0 Tulane 6 2-3-1 5 5-9-1 Southern Miss 7 2-5-0 4 6-8-0 Memphis 6 2-4-0 4 3-7-1 South Florida 7 1-4-2 4 5-7-2 TCU 7 1-4-2 4 2-9-5 Louisville 6 1-4-1 3 5-8-1[/font] The tournament favorite has to be host Charlotte, with Cincinnati and Marquette being the main challengers. St. Louis and East Carolina are the wild cards.
I believe the conference will be wide open this year, with 4 teams in the running to win it. St. Louis, with its defense and goalkeeping, can never be counted out. Charlotte has the rookie sensation (16 goals in 13 games), and while their defense is shaky, they can score in bunches (as evidenced by their 4-1 beating of Marquette). Marquette is always dangerous, but after having watched UC beat Marquette friday evening in Milwaukee 1-0 in overtime I am convinced that if you can contain Kate Gordon, you can beat Marquette. Their other strikers seem tentative when Kate is out of the game, and if Kate is tightly marked, their offense seems to stagnate. They may control the ball at midfield for a while, but they cannot mount a serious threat on goal. UC outshot Marquette Friday evening, and has now only allowed 8 goals in 14 games. The defense is playing as well as last year, and the sophomore goalkeeper is coming up with the big saves. If UC can get by DePaul today, then next friday evening Charlotte visits UC, and that game will go a long way to determining the top seed for the tournament. And it does not get any easier for UC, as St. Louis comes to visit the following Sunday after the Charlotte match. That should be a great weekend of soccer, and I will post game reports after the matches for those interested.
UC-Charlotte The game between Cincinnati and Charlotte tonight lived up to its hype and was an excellent game. Even the weather cooperated as it stopped raining after about 5 minutes of play. The game ended in a 0-0 draw, and both teams had chances to win. UC outshot the 49ers 13-7, and had 8 corners to UNCC's 2. UC also committed 20 fouls to 17 for the 49ers (it was a physical and chippy game, and the ref did a good job of talking to the girls instead of going crazy with his yellow card). There is no question that the 49ers look to Courtney Crandall in every posession. UC had her tightly marked, and she only managed 2 shots the entire game, although one was quite dangerous and just sailed over the crossbar. Tasha Wagner was on fire for UC, consistently beating the left side defenders for either shots or crosses, but UC could not knock one home. UC did hit the crossbar once, and the UNCC goalkeeper made two spectacular saves on Wagner shots to keep the score 0-0. What made this game so much fun to watch was that every possession was contested, the players on both teams were giving their all to win the ball, and they left it all on the field. UC prides itself on its defense, and that sometimes hurts their offense, as they get so many people behind the ball so quickly that the counterattack can sometimes be slow, but I can live with that. I believe this is the first time UNCC has been shut out all year (they average about 3 goals per game), and if these teams meet again in Charlotte in November it will be a great game. It was surprising to me that Marquette lost to ECU today, giving Marquette three losses in league, and no chance to be in the top three now. I just hope UC has some legs left for St. Louis on Sunday, as that should also be an awesome game. It is senior day for UC, and that should motivate them (although just playing St. Louis should be motivation enough). If there are any specifics you would like to know about the game that I may have left out just ask.
Thanks for the great report, BercatFan. As I said before, the top teams in C-USA this year are Charlotte and Cincinnati, so that game may have been a preview of the C-USA final. The challengers are St. Louis, Marquette and East Carolina. You might question the inclusion of East Carolina in that group, but look at the facts. They're 9-4-3 (5-2-2 C-USA). In the last couple of weeks East Carolina has played all the other top teams in C-USA and played them even. They tied Cincinnati, lost 0-1 to Charlotte, and beat St. Louis and Marquette. Having seen SLU play both Marquette and ECU, I'm not at all surprised that ECU beat Marquette. ECU looked as good as Marquette to me. The win against Marquette should move ECU ahead of both SLU and Marquette in the C-USA standings. I'm not saying ECU has a better team than SLU; I don't think that (I don't think Marquette does, either) - but ECU has a solid team - no one in C-USA can take them for granted. That said, I don't think ECU deserved a win against SLU, but not everything can be blamed on the ref. The truth is, St. Louis U. doesn't finish well, and they didn't finish the chances thay had in that game. ECU and SLU seem a lot alike in the sense that they're both solid defensive teams who have trouble scoring goals. (I know SLU is like that, and I suspect that ECU is, too) The C-USA tournament should be real interesting this year. I honestly think there are 5 teams capable of winning it, although Charlotte and Cincinnati would have to be the co-favorites, and ECU is a long-shot. Marquette has been slipping, St. Louis is in a holding pattern, and ECU is beginning to make their presence known.. From the East Carolina website: Women`s Soccer Clenches Huge C-USA Victory
Conference USA Tournament The CUSA tournament begins Wed afternoon with Cincinnati (#2 seed) playing South Florida (winners of their last three matches to make the tournament). These two teams did not play each other this year, but I would expect UC to win based on their defense (they let up only 3 goals in conference play while playing the #1, 3, 4 and 5 seeds in the tournament). The second match of the day pits East Carolina, a surprise #3 seed due to their victory over St. Louis on a "disputed" goal, against Houston. These teams did not play during the season, but having seen UC play both East Carolina and Houston I believe Houston has a good chance for the upset, based on their speed, and the lack of offense I noticed in East Carolina. The best match of the day is the 5 pm game, with St. Louis facing Marquette. Marquette, the #5 seed, was the preseason choice to win the conference, but fell on hard times the second half of the season. These teams played to a scoreless draw earlier this year, and it should be an entertaining match. Marquette has something to prove, and I think St. Louis is also annoyed at having dropped to the #4 seed. The last match of the day is Charlotte against Memphis, and I don't see Memphis giving Charlotte any trouble in that match. The big loser in the seedings is St. Louis, who by dropping to the #4 seed, must first play Marquette, then Charlotte, and hopefully Cincinnati in the finals. The NCAAs will certainly pick Charlotte for their tournament (win or lose the CUSA tournament), and I think the second team to get in will be the one to make the finals with Charlotte, and if Charlotte does not make the finals, then only the winner of the tournament. The NCAA committee has not looked kindly upon CUSA members in the past, and I think they will only pick two teams to go this year, while a case can be made for Charlotte, Cincinnati and St. Louis to go.
Cincinnati Advances Bearcats to Face Winner Of East Carolina And Houston C-USA Announces Women's Soccer Award Winners --threads merged
Arrgh! From the St. Louis U. website: Billikens Defeated by Marquette 2-1 Women's soccer eliminated from C-USA Tournament with PK in the second OT.
I watched the first three games of the CUSA tournament today, and saw an excellent game between SLU and Marquette, a good game with UC and South Florida, and a boring game between ECU and Houston. The wind was horrendous early today, and dramatically affected how the first two games were played. UC dominated South Florida for most of the first half (with the wind), but could only score once, on a corner kick, but 30 seconds later SF scored on their own corner kick. After talking to some UC players later I found out that the keeper had called for the ball, and the defenders had backed off, but the keeper did not get there in time. UC then scored, against the wind, in the first two minutes of the second half, and dominated play for the next 20 minutes. But then it was like a switch went off in their heads, and UC then decided it was time to play defense, and the last 25 minutes was in the UC half of the field. SF managed no shots, but it was a nerve-wracking 25 minutes with UF keeping the pressure on. UC scored its third goal when they finally got a long clear, the UF keeper came out of the box to play it, and then lost the ball to a UC striker, who just walked the ball into the goal with 30 seconds left. Overall, it was a good performance for UC, but they will have to raise the level of their game to play ECU tomorrow. The ECU-Houston game was basically all ECU, but they had trouble finding the finishing pass to score. The first half was 0-0, but ECU had the better of the play, going against the wind! ECU still had trouble scoring until midway through the second half the Houston keeper made a dreadful error. A long ball played by ECU came to the keeper on the ground, and instead of picking it up (no pressure on her at all) she decided she was going to run up and kick the ball- but she missed and ran by it. An ECU striker then ran be the keeper and put the ball into the empty net. The second goal by ECU was by Amanda Duffy off a bad angle, over the keeper's head, off the far post, and into the back of the net. It should be an ineresting game tomorrow between ECU and UC, as they tied 0-0 during the regular season. The third game, Marquette-SLU, was great. The speed of play was much faster than the ECU-Houston game, the players on both teams were hustling after every lose ball, and the game flowed back and forth. By the time this game started the wind was no longer a factor, and in the first half SLU had the edge in play, but the score was 1-1. SLU beat Marquette to the ball, had the better passes and threats, but could not finish when they had the opportunity. In the second half Marquette was all over SLU, but they too had trouble finishing, and when they did have good shots, Burke made difficult saves look easy. The first overtime was even, with both teams having chances, but just missing on through balls. In the second overtime SLU was pressuring, but a through ball was intercepted by the Marquette defense, who sent a long ball to Kate Gordon about 50 yards from the SLU goal. Gordon was inbetween two defenders, one touched the ball between the defenders towards the goal, and then just outran them. One of the defenders clearly put two hands on Gordon's back when she was in the box and pushed. The ref called a PK. From where I was sitting it appeared to be a good call -the time to foul Gordon was when she pushed the ball between the two defenders. The PK was good, and I think SLU's season is over as well. At this point I was too cold and my back hurt from watching soccer from noon until 7:35 pm, so I decided to skip the Charlotte-Memphis game. More reports will be forthcoming tomorrow evening.
Great reports, BearcatFan. Thanks! It sounds like it was a great game. The Bills have a very good team except for one thing, and you mantioned it. I have been concerned about the lack of finishing all season. If you can't finish it's tough to win. And you certainly can't afford any defensive mistakes. One thing I liked about Charlotte when I saw them was that they finished the chances they had.
From the Charlotte website: #10 Women's Soccer Defeated Memphis, 2-0, In First Round of C-USA Tournament The 49ers advance to the C-USA Tournament Semifinals for the eighth straight season
From the East Carolina website: Cincinnati 2 - 1 East Carolina Cincinnati will play the winner of the Chalotte/Maquette game (should be about over) on Sunday fo the C-USA title.
This evening I watched both CUSA semi-final games. In the first game UC dominated ECU, outshooting them 18-2, and had 8 corners to maybe 1 for ECU. However, UC only defeated ECU 2-1, with a goal in the last three minutes. UC had this game well in hand but could not finish (sound familiar?) until Tasha Wagner scored off a corner kick. UC kept the pressure up in the second half, but on ECU's only shot of the half they scored. The play started with a ball played into the box which the UC keeper dove for but missed. The ECU forward centered the ball to the one ECU attacker there, who, despite having four defenders around her, got the ball into the open net. The next five minutes after this score (with about 20 minutes left in the game) ECU had their best offensive spurt, putting pressure on but not being able to mount a shot. UC then regrouped, and started pressuring again, and finally scored off another corner kick with 2:26 remaining. I guess all the practice on corners (they had over 20 corners in the games against Charlotte and SLU last weekend, and did not score on any of them) has paid off- UC has three goals off of corner kicks thus far in the tournament!! In the second game Charlotte came out on fire against Marquette, scoring within the first 10 minutes of the game, and dominating the first 25 minutes, outshooting Marquette 7-1. However, after this initial outburst, Charlotte seemed to slow down (perhaps they thought this would be easy, after scoring so early) and Marquette began to gain the advantage, and even to dominate play. The half ended with the shots even, 7-7, to give an indication. In the second half Marquette was pounding on the Charlotte goal, and eventually Kate Gordon scored on a great individual effort. Kate was one versus two on a long pass sent down the left side of the field. Gordon received the pass and sprinted down the left side with the two defenders matching her stride for stride. As Gordon reached the six yard line she managed to float a shot to the far upper 90 of the Charlotte goal - and as the Charlotte keeper is short, it went in. Marquette's second goal was the result of a horrendous Charlotte defense mistake - Marquette sent a long through ball over the top, down the middle, and a Marquette striker (not Gordon) and two defenders were fighting for the ball. One of the defenders, at the 18 yard line, tried to head the ball back to her keeper, but the header landed at the feet of the Marquette striker, who put it into the net. Charlotte was not able to mount much of an attack after that, and Marquette now has a chance to reach the NCAAs with a win on Saturday against Cincinnati. I saw something tonight which I had not seen before - with about two minutes left in both games the losing team substituted its goalie each time it had a throw in, in order to stop the clock. The Marquette goalie was subbed in and out three times - I never realized the one time re-entry per half rule did not apply to keepers. This seemed too much like basketball, and I hope it gets fixed before next year. The UC-Marquette game should be a good one, as Marquette has revenge in mind due to UC beating them 1-0 in Milwaukee earlier this year. I had thought that if UC-Charlotte had made the finals, UC would be in the NCAAs, even if they lost. Now with Marquette a possible winner, I am not sure if the NCAA will take three teams from CUSA, even though, in my biased opinon, UC deserves to go (15-3-3 right now). UC is also playing mad because despite finishing second in the conference, they only had two players named to All-Conference teams. Their keeper, Tracy Hale, has only let up three goals in 10 CUSA games, the lowest number of any CUSA goalie, yet she was not selected for either first, second or third team, and since there was a tie for second team, the coaches did not even think she was in the top four in the conference. Perhaps that was because our defenders in front of her are so good- but only one of our four defenders made any of the three teams. So the players feel they have something to prove to the coaches during this tournament. Sorry for going a bit off topic - I will report on the finals on Saturday after a day of rest. Go CATS!!!
As an unbiased source...meaning I do not really follow the conference, I think Charlotte is already in and Cincy should get in without winning it all (due partly to the region they are in). Marquette needs to win it all to get in. If they do, I think all 3 get in. Just my $.02. Your conference has represented itself well. And, Florida will get in so that helps UC.
As a biased observer, meaning a St. Louis U fan and someone who follows this conference, I will say right now, before the final that, if Marquette beat both SLU and Charlotte in the conference tournament, they should be in! No matter what happens in the conference final. Hey, Marquette beat two damn good teams (yea, SLU is a damn good team, so is Charlotte). Cincinnati should get in, too. C-USA is a good conference and deserves 3 teams in the NT this year - Charlotte, Cincinnati and Marquette. They have all earned it. If C-USA only gets two teams this year, that sucks!!
UC wins CUSA tournament The game between Cincy and Marquette was a tale of two halves. The wind was blowing very hard across the length of the field, and UC was going against the wind in the first half. Despite that, UC scored first on a beautiful pass to Tianna Oliver, who split the Marquette defense and beat the goalie on a low shot. However, that was the only highlite for UC that half. UC was outshot 8-3, and Marquette controlled the play. It appeared as if UC was playing scared, much more defensive than normal, and other than the goal, never mounted another serious attack. With about 10 minutes left in the half Marquette sent a long ball into the UC box, and I thought the UC defender was going to head it away, however, the wind pushed the ball a little further, and the ball landed at the foot of Marquette's best player, Kate Gordon, who punched it into the goal. The half ended 1-1. In the second half UC had the wind, but were still having trouble maintaining control of the ball. But as the half progressed Marquette's long balls were not reaching their targets (due to the wind) and UC began to take control of the game. UC outshot Marquette 9-2 in the second half, and with 6.5 minutes left in the game Tasha Wagner was found free on the right wing, and she has tremendous speed, beat the defenders and sent a low shot to the far left corner of the goal. The Marquette keeper dove and hit the ball with her hand - it bounced straight up in the air, had reverse spin on it, and when it hit the ground it bounced into the net!! 2-1 UC. The last 6 minutes were an eternity, but Marquette had no serious chances, and their legs seemed to go out. I think playin the two tough games against SLU and Charlotte finally took its toll late in the second half. UC worked very hard this game - it was not their best game of the year, but perhaps their most courageous. They challanged all balls, played great defense (other than the goal there were no really dangerous shots), and were opportunistic on offense. This is the first time that UC has made the NCAA tournament in consecutive years, and I cannot be more proud of the girls on this team. GO CATS!!
Congrats to Cincy! this team doesn't seem to get much respect, but they should cause they are good and they'll make some noise in the NCAA's. Too bad they couldn't beat Charlotte for the title, but I'm sure they'll take it no matter who it came against.