The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) drafted 56 players from the NCAA over four rounds on Friday night. Expansion teams, the Utah Royals and Bay FC, had the first two picks with midfielder Ally Sentnor and defender Savy King, respectively. Both are teenagers from UNC. The number of teenagers in the NWSL is increasing thanks to better club development and additional USWNT experience.

Seven Universities were represented in the first round, with North Carolina leading the way with three players. The others are Stanford (2), UCLA (2), Penn State (2), Clemson (2), BYU (1), Georgia (1), and Florida State (1).

Top programs have players drafted to NWSL

Several universities feature prominently at NWSL draft

Florida State earned their fourth National Championship in a dismantling of Stanford, 5-1. Florida State entered the game as the top offense in the nation, and Stanford was the top defense. For the Noles, two Freshmen scored three times. Jody Brown scored twice, and Jordan Dudley scored once. Seniors Onyi Echegeni and Beata Olsson also added goals.

Interestingly, FSU's roster of 21 included seven international players, while Stanford's roster of 30 included 21 players from California alone.

Florida State soccers wins national championship

Florida State soccer wins fourth national championship

One unbeaten streak will end tonight. No. 1 seed Florida State University and No.2 seed Stanford face off in Cary, N.C. It's a battle of powerhouses and different styles of play. The Seminoles lead the country in scoring offense. The Cardinal lead the nation in goals-against-average. It will be an offensive vs. defensive battle, and we can't wait to watch it on ESPNU at 6:00 pm ET.

Florida State won the ACC regular season and conference championship. The Noles beat Clemson 2-0 in the semifinals.

ACC Offensive Player of the Year & First-Team All-American:

ACC Freshman of the Year & First-Team All-American:

 Jody Brown, Sr., Forward & Taylor Huff, Jr., Midfielder

Florida State advances to the title game for the fourth time in five seasons. The program won in 2014, 2018, and 2021.

Stanford came in second in the Pac-12, behind UCLA. The Cardinal beat BYU 2-0 in the semifinals. In 2022, Stanford lost to BYU in the tournament's second round with a 4-5 shootout.

Four draws with Georgetown, Washington, USC, and UCLA.

The Cardinal won three national titles - 2011, 2017, and 2019.

2023 Pac-12 Women's Soccer Midfielder of the Year & First-Team All-American: 

Florida State and Stanford soccer play for national championship

Florida State and Stanford face off for College Cup championship

Surprise, Surprise - the three top seeds who survived the first round (sorry, UCLA), Florida State, BYU, and Clemson, will compete in the College Cup alongside two-seed Stanford. Clemson knocked out two-seed Penn State 2-1, and Florida State beat fellow ACC team and under-dog Pitt 3-0. The real thrillers were BYU vs. three-seed UNC and Stanford vs five-seed Nebraska.

Stanford led 1-0 until Nebraska evened it up with three minutes remaining on the clock. Nebraska had a magical season and ended Stanford's streak of 470 minutes without allowing a goal. Four minutes into overtime, Stanford's Maya Dom put the Cardinal in front. Stanford won 2-1 and will return to the College Cup for the first time since 2019, when they won it all. The BYU and UNC game was even more dramatic. Down 0-3 within 20 minutes of the start, the BYU Cougars clawed their way back beginning in the 61st minute. In the 81st minute, BYU scored to come within one, and the equalizer came 1 minute later. Almost unthinkably, BYU took the lead in the 89th minute, winning 4-3 and going to the College Cup for the second time in program history.

Women's College World Cup kicks off

All the seeded teams besides the defending National Champion and one seed, UCLA, will play in the tournament's second round. UC-Irvine upset the Bruins in the first round. The Anteaters scored in the 86th minute and held off the Bruins in the final minutes. This is the third consecutive season UCI defeated a seeded team in the tournament's opening round - beating USC in 2022 and UCLA in 2021.

Play resumes on Friday, November 17th, with 16 teams still searching for a title.

UC Irvine upsets UCLA in tournament upset

UCLA falls to UC Irvine in first round upset

The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the West African country of Nigeria would not appear to have much in common. But a Venn diagram depicting the two would contain at least one intriguing overlap - a man named Randy Waldrum.

Waldrum, a lifelong soccer coach, made headlines as the sidelines leader of Nigeria’s Women’s National Team, an underdog that dramatically moved into the World Cup knockout round and pushed No. 4 England to penalty kicks in the round of 16 before falling. Although he lacked any links to Nigeria, Waldrum was appointed the head coach in 2022 and kept his main gig as coach of the University of Pittsburgh’s women’s team. Already respected for his accomplishments in Pittsburgh, Waldrum's ability to guide the Nigerian team to the round of 16 and stand alongside his players amid challenges posed by the Nigeria Football Federation has elevated his and the team's status as role models.

Waldrum also initially lacked a connection to Pittsburgh before soccer came calling. A Texas native, Waldrum was appointed head coach of Pitt in late 2017 and has since, in the words of Pitt Athletics, “engineered one of the most impressive turnarounds in women’s college soccer.” In the five seasons he’s been in charge, the Panthers have qualified for the ACC playoffs and the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history after only winning five games total in their 2015 and 2016 seasons. Overall, Waldrum currently ranks 10th all-time in NCAA Division I coaching victories (431) and ranks 6th in wins among active NCAA coaches.

Waldrum, who is 66, has mostly coached women’s teams throughout a career that began in 1982, including stints at Baylor, Notre Dame, and in the National Women’s Soccer League. As such, he is all too familiar with the struggle women athletes and their programs face in attaining proper funding and support. Nigeria's Women’s Team is plagued by a national federation that withholds financial support, including failing to make proper payments to coaches and players and canceling a crucial training camp just weeks before the World Cup. In an arbitrary and last-minute decision, the federation also decided to ban the team’s assistant coach, Lauren Gregg, from attending the World Cup. Gregg said it was a retaliatory move for 

 against the Federation’s lack of support. Gregg, who was the first-ever female assistant coach for any United States National Team and also served as an interim head coach of the USWNT, is a large part of the Super Falcons’ operation. Despite the ban, she has helped Waldrum during the World Cup by coaching remotely.

Waldrum, meanwhile, has publicly lambasted the federation for its actions in the leadup to the World Cup, and when asked about his outspokenness, he 

 the Associated Press that “I need to be a voice for the girls and fight for the things that they deserve to be getting.” For him, it is a battle both on and off the field. With Nigeria's World Cup over, Waldrum will return to Pittsburgh, where the Panthers are ranked 14th in the NCAA Division l preseason poll for 2023. Many recruits and transfers cite the coaching staff as a major factor in their decision to play for Pittsburgh, and in January 2023, Waldrum’s contract was 

Fittingly, one player Waldrum hopes to be counting on at Pittsburgh this season is Deborah Abiodun, a 19-year-old Nigerian Women’s Team striker. As a freshman at Pitt, she will make the overlap in that Venn diagram just a little bit larger.

Pittsburgh Head Coach Makes Impact with Nigerian National Team

Pittsburgh head coach makes impact with Nigerian National Team

With the Women's World Cup in full swing, many Americans are focused on our National Team, the four-time World Cup winners and four-time Olympic gold medalists who are now attempting to nail down a 5th star. Many of the players on the U.S. roster starred at powerhouse programs like the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels, which boasts 21 NCAA women's soccer championships, and the Stanford Cardinals, the alma mater to more than 18 current and former USWNT players. But as competing countries finalized their World Cup rosters over the past few weeks, 19 players other than the two usual suspects have been plucked from U.S. universities. Here is the other twist: all of these players will compete for teams not called the United States. Fortunately, given the high level of training and competition that these players have experienced as athletes at NCAA and NJCAA colleges, their presence could make big differences on the field.

The country fielding the most active NCAA players is Jamaica. It has selected four athletes from Power-5 schools to fill out its roster as the “Reggae Girlz” make their second World Cup appearance. Jamaica is counting on two speedy forwards -- Kameron Simmonds from the University of Tennessee and Kiki Van Zanten from Notre Dame -- to get some points in the standings. Midfielder Peyton McNamara from Ohio State University and goalie Liya Brooks from Washington State University are also expected to get some minutes.

Jamaica's journey to the 2023 Women's World Cup has been difficult. After almost qualifying for the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, the team disbanded in 2010 due to lack of funding. The team reassembled a few years later and, during that process, began to look for players with Jamaican heritage outside of the tiny island country. The result was a strong national team fielded by Jamaica in the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship, which included memorable saves from goalkeeper Sydney Schneider, a UNC Tar Heel at the time. Players like Schneider, who was born in the U.S., did not make the American roster, but should not be taken any less seriously, especially if they play year-round with top talent in the United States. Another case in point: Bunny Shaw, Jamaica's best player, and Manchester City's leading striker, is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee.

Haiti has the second-largest active NCAA presence, calling up three players. Though only one of these three players hails from a Power-5 conference (Ruthny Mathurin, Mississippi State University), Milan Pierre Gerome and Lara Larco come from respectable programs at George Mason University and Georgetown University and will provide valuable experience for Haiti's capable but green, roster.

As of the Sunday before kickoff, only one U.S. school, Florida State University, sent more than one active player to a non-U.S. women's national team (the USWNT currently has no active NCAA players on its roster). Those two players are Heather Payne, who will represent Ireland, and Jennifer Echegini, who will take the field for Nigeria. In a rare move for a national team roster, Hillary Jaen from Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi, joined the Panamanian team. Equally rare is the number of high school students on World Cup rosters. Kaiya Jota and Casey Phair, both American high school students, will appear in the Philippines and South Korea, respectively. Jota is verbally committed to Stanford, and Phair is uncommitted.

Regarding women's soccer, the U.S. leads the way in developing players from a young age through the national level. As a result, it is no surprise how players from other countries take advantage of NCAA competition and why so many players have the skills to represent countries worldwide. The end result may be a World Cup with unprecedented levels of competition.

Nineteen active NCAA player secure roster spots on World Cup teams 

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Several universities feature prominently at NWSL draft

Top programs have players drafted to NWSL.

Several universities feature prominently at NWSL draft

Florida State soccer wins fourth national championship

Florida State and Stanford face off for College Cup championship

Women's College World Cup kicks off

UCLA falls to UC Irvine in first round upset

Pittsburgh head coach makes impact with Nigerian National Team

NCAA stars travel to the World Cup

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