Sasho Cirovski had a lot on his mind this past weekend. A day before No. 1 Terrapins rallied to beat Michigan, 3-2, and remain unbeaten, he drove across to Canadian border to visit his mother, whose condition had stabilized after suffering serious injuries when she was hit by a car while crossing a street.

Stanford remained No. 1 in the second NCAA RPI rankings of the 2016 season, ahead of Georgetown and BYU. The NCAA uses the RPI to help seed teams and select at-large teams for its postseason championship. It takes into account wins, losses and ties, whether they were home and away -- and strength of schedule.

Is college soccer doomed to irrelevance and decline? Charles Boehm asks that of those in and around the college game (men's and women's). Maryland's Sasho Cirovski, who is leading the fight for a split season, has termed college soccer "the pulse, the glue and the heartbeat of soccer in this country."

A single goal separated Army and Navy in the Army-Navy Cup at Talen Energy Stadium, home of MLS"s Philadelphia Union. It's fifth straight year the game has been played in Chester, and this year's game drew 10,092 fans, the largest crowd in college soccer this season.

Nickolette Driesse pulled a rare double -- back-to-back national titles with different teams. She played for Florida State when it won its first national title in 2014. And she helped Penn State win its first national crown this season. The decision to leave the Seminoles came after she went from a starter in 2013 to a player off the bench in 2014. "Winning it was so emotional," Driesse said. "Everything I went through with leaving Florida State ... all the hard times were over. Once they brought out that trophy, I knew it was all worth it."

For one Akron soccer fan, the fanaticism of him and his wife for the Zips was built up through the years of watching them in the cold and crowded stands. Akron grew during the "death by a thousand passes" era of soccer decreed by then-coach Caleb Porter. Akron teams featured Steve Zakuani, Darlington Nagbe, Kofi Sarkodie, Darren Mattocks, Wil Trapp and DeAndre Yedlin, among others, during the Porter years. A new coach, Jared Embick, and new players have Akron fans ready for Friday.

Three years after Jared Embick was handed the Akron men's head coaching job following the departure of his boss, Caleb Porter, to the Portland Timbers, he's taking the Zips to the Men's College Cup. The 3-2 overtime win over, Creighton came a day before the Timbers played for MLS Cup 2015 two hours away in Columbus. Porter was proud of the Zips' success under his former assistant. "Not to get too nostalgic, but it's really cool that the Akron program's healthy, my assistant has taken over and done a great job, which is what I had hoped would happen because …

Syracuse, the lone newcomer at this year's Men's College Cup, has gone unbeaten in its last seven games, winning its first ACC title and taking three games in a row in the NCAA Tournament. It scored twice in the first 20 minutes to beat Seattle in the third round but needed a late goal from Ben Polk to edge Boston College, 1-0, in the quarterfinals. "You can't score in the first couple of minutes like we did last week every week,'' said Orange coach Ian McIntyre. "We talk about our brand of soccer is just to keep pushing, and to …

No. 1 seed Wake Forest will face its toughest test on the road to the Men's College Cup when it hosts Stanford and Jordan Morris on Saturday at Spry Stadium. The Demon Deacons, who don't have any senior starters, are the youngest team in the tournament. "In a lot of ways this is a young team," Coach Bobby Muuss said. "We have some young guys and every game and every week that goes by they are learning. This has been a great group to work with all season."

Penn State is returning to the Women's College Cup, beating West Virginia, 2-0, to make it four wins in four NCAA Tournament games and an amazing 17-0 goal difference. The Nittany Lions will be making their fifth appearance in the College Cup, and second trip in the last four seasons. In 2012, they fell to North Carolina in the final. The seven players from the 2012 team want the ending to be different. "These seniors have been here before," Penn State coach Erica Walsh said. "They're not satisfied to just go to a College Cup."

Elmar Bolowich, who won an NCAA Division I title with North Carolina in 2001, returned to Chapel Hill for the first time as Creighton head coach and led the Bluejays to a 1-0 win that eliminated the No. 5 Tar Heels from the NCAA Tournament. Bolowich tried to downplay any significance in his return to North Carolina. "It was a strange feeling to be back when we trained on Friday," he said. "But I knew Saturday it was all about Creighton. It was all about us finding a way to move on and extend our season."

Georgetown came into the third round of the NCAA Division I Men's Tournament with a school record 14-game winning streak, but for the second year in a row the Hoyas exited the postseason at home in a shootout. In 2014, they fell to Virginia in the quarterfinals at Shaw Field. On Sunday it was Boston College that was the upset winner. "It's hard because it's the second year in a row you feel like you have a team that might be able to win the whole thing," Georgetown Coach Brian Wiese said.

Winthrop keeper Fabian Broich, hero of the shootout that gave Winthrop the Big South title and a berth in the NCAA Division I Men's Tournament, has used poetry and rap to overcome his bashfulness. He made a music video with Eagle players about the importance of shirking social media for actual human interaction.

Six-time defending A-Sun regular-season champ FGCU finally won its first NCAA Division I Tournament game when it beat South Florida, 2-1, in the first round of the 2015 tournament. Both of FGCU's goals came on first-half penalty kicks. Said junior Tabby Tindell, two-time A-Sun Player of the Year and FGCU's record-holder with 52 goals, "The emotion of it is unreal."

St. Norbert senior Katie Vanden Avond set the NCAA Division III women's career scoring record with the 125th goal of her career in the Green Knights' 1-1 tie with UW-La Crosse. She broke the record of 124 goals she shared with Luther's Katie Pettigrew (2001-04). "Nothing like this could have ever happened if it wasn't for this school, this team and this coach," said Vanden Avond. "I consider myself incredibly lucky to be a Green Knight and that I got to play college soccer in my hometown."