WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Williamand Mary head women's soccer coach John Daly signed eight student-athletes tonational letters of intent on Wednesday. The eight player recruiting class joins a stout W&M squad, fresh offof a CAA championship, and a NCAA tournament birth last season. In the national polls, last year the Tribeclimbed to as high as No.

Ian Barker, who spent nine seasons as an assistant in the University of Wisconsin men's program, resigned as the coach at Macalester (Minn.) on Tuesday to become the director of coaching education for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Barker was on assistant on coach Jim Launder's staff at UW from 1989 to '97, helping the Badgers earn four NCAA tournament berths – including the 1995 national championship.

This past week has been a whirlwind for Fire fans. We had the MLS SuperDraft hoopla last week with a couple of new player signings sprinkled in (Robayo and Puppo). On the heels of that we had a sponsor announcement and new jersey unveiling. Somewhat lost in the shuffle was the announcement of the changes to the U.

The Portland Timbers four supplemental draft picks all came from west coast schools as Gavin Wilkinson and company went with players they had the opportunity to observe this college season.

Ryan Kowaluk - D - University of Portland

A member of the 2010 and 2011 Portland Timbers U-23 sides, Kowaluk was a two time All-PDL selection alongside his teammate Brett Richards.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Montreal Impact wasted little time in making it known who they would take with the first pick in Tuesday's MLS Supplemental Draft.

With their selection, which is akin to the first pick in the third round of the SuperDraft had the main event not been shortened, the Impact took Charlotte winger Evan James, a skilled, Canada-born midfielder who performed well at the combine after helping the 49ers to the NCAA championship game.

The Breakers searched far and near to find its four newest recruits for the 2012 season during Friday's WPS Draft.

Forwards Stephanie Ochs (San Diego), Courtney Jones (North Carolina) and Jessica Luscinski (Boston University), along with defender Melinda Mercado (Oklahoma State), all had their names called by the club at the Kansas City Convention Center.

Eclipse Select Communications
CHICAGO -- Eclipse Select Soccer Club forward/midfielder and Downers Grove North High School junior Summer Schafer announces her commitment to play for Memphis University's women's soccer team in 2013.
"I think it will be a really exciting experience going to a college that not a lot of people from around here go to," Schafer said.

If this is the apocalypse, gimme some It's been almost five months since I've posted something fresh to my blog. That's downright apocalyptic, which is apropos given it's after all 2012. Kinda sad for footie fans if the Mayans are right. After all, we're stuck with 2010 as the last World Cup--aside from Spain establishing itself as the best national team in a generation, the Mundial didn't give us much more.

There's a nice article in here on the Tmbers Army by iSportsWeb (never heard of em myself) with Garrett Dittfurth, one of the Board of Directors for the TA. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's embellishing what we've become in the north end, I will say, however, that it's a very flattering article.

Women's soccer

Abby Wambach is the AP's 2011 Female Athlete of the Year. Come on, WPS. Capitalize on this!

The USWNT will face Denmark, Norway and World Champions Japan in the 2012 Algarve Cup, which runs Feb. 29-March 7 in Portugal.

THE Val Henderson has a great article up on ESPN-W about Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson traveling to India to start a clinic and mentoring program.

CU's soccer future just got a lot brighter.

On Monday, the University of Colorado lured Danny Sanchez back to the Front Range to take over an underachieving Buffs team that stumbled badly in its first season in the Pac 12.

Sanchez, who spent the past several years turning the University of Wyoming into a winning program, has a history of winning at every level.

Pac-"12" soccer threatening to become Pac-5 with SDSU leaving

Despite the name, the Pac-12 only has 6 schools that play soccer, and it gets to that number by including a school that isn't part of the Pac-12 in the major sports - San Diego State. Now SDSU is moving to the Big West. Only having 5 teams would prevent the Pac-12 from playing in the NCAA tournament, but it sounds like they'll hold on to SDSU until a replacement can be found.

Zach Pfeffer is no longer all alone as the only Philadelphia Union Home Grown Player. The 16-year-old midfielder now has fellow former academy star Jimmy McLaughlin as a teammate on the Union's first team roster.

McLaughlin started all 22 games possible at Colgate in 2011, including the University's 4-1 loss to Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

No. 1 North Carolina and unseeded Charlotte share the same state geographically but that's about all these two teams have in common.

The Tar Heels are a perennial power participating in their fourth-straight College Cup. It is a team full of pro-ready talent, a team that has gelled remarkably fast under first-year head coach Carlos Somoano, who spent the better part of the decade as an assistant with North Carolina.

Later today, NCAA Tournament finalists UNC-Charlotte and North Carolina wil play for the prestigious College Cup. To give us a better glimpse of what occured during the tournament, Brian O'Connell caught up with Revsnet founder and college soccer expert Mike Marshall to discuss this weekend's slate of matches, as well as college soccer at large.

UW-Milwaukee and Marquette each won conference titles, each advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament and each had four players named to National Soccer Coaches Association of America women's all-region teams.

The Panthers' trio of senior forward Sarah Hagen (Appleton North), senior midfielder Keara Thompson and junior goalkeeper Jamie Forbes were all first-team selections on the All-Great Lakes Region team, while junior midfielder Helen Steinhauser made the second team.

For our second player profile we look to the midfield, a certain trouble spot for New England in recent years. After catching a little of the College Cup this past weekend, I've got a new midfield crush. We head out west, to perennial powerhouse UCLA, and take a look at their dynamic midfielder, Kelyn Rowe, recently named Pac-12 Player of the Year!

The Stanford Cardinal are the newest champions of Division I women's college soccer after defeating Duke 1-0 in a hard-fought final at KSU Soccer Stadium outside Atlanta. The winning goal was scored about ten minutes into the second half by Teresa Noyola. Much had been stated about Duke's slow starts in their previous NCAA Tournament matches, and I think coach Robbie Church must have communicated to the team that if they did the same against Stanford they would find themselves behind early.

With the Super Draft a little over a month away, it's time to start getting familiar with some of the prospects that will be available for selection. Every few days or so leading up to the draft we will be providing player profiles to give you some insight into each prospect. These previews will obviously have a Revolution-centric theme and feel to them, and we'll be looking at players that we feel will be a proper fit for the organization going forward.

The NCAA Women's College Cup, taking place this weekend at Kennesaw State Stadium in Kennesaw will be the first NCAA soccer championship held in Georgia since 1968. And one thing is for certain there will be a first-time national champion crowned at this year's NCAA final.

All four College Cup teams were seeded first in their respective brackets, and include three ACC schools—Wake Forest, Duke and Florida State—and two-time NCAA runner-up Stanford, making its fourth consecutive College Cup appearance.

When Creighton hired Elmar Bolowich last February to be its men's soccer coach, this school of 4,000 undergraduates in Omaha, Neb., didn't just manage to land a respectable steward for its program. It basically upended the entire space-time continuum of college sports.
Not only did Bolowich win a 2001 national title, he was also the winningest men's soccer coach in the history of the school he came from.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

There will be no repeat for Caleb Porter and the Akron Zips.

The defending champions were unceremoniously dumped out at the hands of unseeded Charlotte with a 1-0 defeat Sunday night. A first-half goal from A-10 rookie of the year Giuseppe Gentile proved to be the difference as Charlotte handed Akron its first regulation loss in NCAA play since 2008.

Philadelphia Union

This Vancouver blog attributes Nizar Khalfan's inability to become a regular starter with the Whitecaps to being away on international duty and being on the outs with then head coach Tommy Soehn. "Frankly, I think the Whitecaps should have kept him, and my feeling is the loss of the Vancouver Whitecaps is the Philadelphia Union's gain.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Colin Rolfe's one-man show has Louisville on the cusp of a return to the College Cup.

Rolfe, Louisville's leading scorer and last year's Hermann Trophy finalist, took apart Maryland's back line with a goal and three assists in leading the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 at Ludwig Field Sunday night.

*Long Beach State's best-ever season has ended after a loss to Duke Friday in North Carolina.

*The UCLA men remain alive in the thid round of the NCAA Tournament, however, and host Rutgers Sunday at Drake Stadium.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By JOHN BOSCHINI

We're getting down to the nitty gritty of the postseason as the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament kicks off at campus sites around the country on Sunday.

With students still returning from Thanksgiving break, don't expect crowd support to be quite as raucous as it has been during the season.

Creighton mens soccer captured the MVC title, now aim for the bigger prize at NCAA Championships.

Omaha, NE The Missouri Valley Conference Championship game had the #1 and #2 seeds matched up head to head for the automatic NCAA berth. There was lots to play for and it was evident with some of the tough challenges and physical play on both sides.

There was more than one successful women's soccer team at Marquette this fall.

While the Golden Eagles varsity team claimed a share of its third straight Big East Conference American Division title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, the school's club team won the Great Lakes Division of the Women's Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference and advanced to the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association National Championships.

When last we checked on the Sounders Academy alumni in their first year of college soccer, we learned that three would be continuing their seasons into the NCAA Tournament along with a couple moving into the postseason in lower divisions. But a week later, only one remains.

NCAA Division I

After a bit of a slide (by their standards) in the second half of the season, the defending national champion Akron Zips - featuring Sounder DeAndre Yedlin at fullback - missed out on a bye in the NCAA Tournament and instead had to face Northwestern in the first round.

Eclipse Select Communications
CHICAGO -- Eclipse Select Soccer Club alumna and Duke junior midfielder Nicole Lipp (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) assisted both of her team's goals as the Blue Devils defeated Ohio State, 2-1, on Sunday to advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Duke had to overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit, and Lipp stepped up in the 54th minute as she took a free kick from the right side and found the feet of freshman Kelly Cobb to tie the score at 1-1.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

When Boston College was announced as the fourth seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, more than a few people raised their eyebrows in surprise. On Sunday, the rest of the college soccer world found out why.

The Eagles were shocked at home by unseeded Rutgers with a penalty kick shootout loss, dumping Boston College out in their first game of the tournament.

The last two Minnesota D-3 soccer teams season came to an end this weekend in the NCAA Tournament. The two remaining teams, St. Benedict's and Concordia-Moorhead, both members of the MIAC women's soccer conference, were defeated in Friday's round of 16 match-ups. St. Benedict's who had previously defeated Carol in shootout penalty kicks and Loras [.

The season ended for the UW-Milwaukee and Marquette women's soccer teams against Big Ten Conference teams Friday in North Carolina, along with the careers of two players whose accomplishments over the past four years will be prominently featured in the NCAA Division I record book.

Senior Sarah Hagen (Appleton North) scored on the final touch of her career, curling in a free kick from 19 yards out in the 90th minute, but it was the only shot on goal for the 15th-ranked Panthers in their 2-1 loss to Ohio State in an NCAA tournament second-round match in Durham, N.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

One round down in the NCAA Tournament and most of the heavy hitters relegated to the first round are still alive, with one notable exception.

2009 champions Virginia were shocked 1-0 at home by Colonial Athletic Champions Delaware in an overtime upset.

Photo: Courtesy Matt Riley/University of Delaware

Local

University of Delaware upset No. 20 ranked University of Virginia with a 1–0 double overtime win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Sophomore John Dineen headed the winner with 4:14 remaining the the second overtime period.

Photo: Courtesy Matt Riley/University of Delaware

Local

University of Delaware upset No. 20 ranked University of Virginia with a 1–0 double overtime win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Sophomore John Dineen headed the winner with 4:14 remaining the the second overtime period.

What started as four teams from Virginia is now down to two after first round NCAA Championship action Thursday night.
- No. 21 Old Dominion won a thrilling opening round game of the 2011 NCAA Tournament on a chilly Thursday night at the ODU Soccer Complex as they defeated the Liberty Flames 5-4 in penalty kicks to advance.

A trio of Wisconsin women's teams continue play in the NCAA tournament on Friday.

City rivals Marquette and UW-Milwaukee are both in North Carolina for second-round Division I matches – and they'll hope to be playing in the third round on Sunday. UW-Whitewater, meanwhile, plays in the third round of the Division III tournament Friday, shooting to advance to the national quarterfinals on Saturday.

Woodbury natives Eric Miller and Brent Kallman hope to push Missouri Valley Conference Champion Creighton University one step past their #2 national ranking and #2 seed as the D1 Men's NCAA Tournament opens this weekend. The Blue Jays are 18-2-0 on the season turning in an astounding 16 clean sheets in 20 matches, national-best .

Taylor SchisslerEclipse Select Communications
CHICAGO -- Eclipse Select Soccer Club U-17 defender Taylor Schissler found everything she wanted in Ohio State University's women's soccer program.
The New Lenox, Ill., resident and Lincoln-Way Central junior announced her commitment to play for the Buckeyes starting in 2013, and she joins a Big Ten Conference program that created some national attention last year in advancing to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.