MORNING BRIEFING: Close calls for top women's seeds

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Nov 24, 2008

UCLA defeated defending champion USC, 1-0, in the marquee match of the third round of NCAA Division I Women's Tournament. Top-ranked Notre Dame needed an overtime penalty kick from Kerri Hanks to beat unseeded Minnesota, 1-0. Stanford also struggled to put away unseeded Rutgers and had to settle for a 1-0 on a late goal from Kelley O'Hara. The fourth No. 1 seed, North Carolina, extended its scoreless streak to 671-plus minutes with a 3-0 win over Illinois. Two No. 2 seeds Florida State and Portland and No. 3 seeds Duke and Texas A&M complete the final eight.


UCLA 1 USC 0.
Kristina Larsen did it again. The junior, who scored both goals in UCLA's 2-0 win over USC in the regular season, scored the only goal to give the Bruins a 1-0 win over the defending champion Women of Troy in their much-anticipated rematch of last year's Women's College Cup semifinal game.

The game had a big-time atmosphere. Both school bands were on hand at UCLA's Drake Stadium for the match, which drew a UCLA women's record of 3,114 fans.

The Bruins scored on a wild scramble in the 13th minute when USC defender Karter Haug tried to clear a ball off the line and Larsen deflected the ball into the goal off her hip for her team-high 11th goal of the season.

"It's just about being aggressive in the box," said Larsen, who scored her team-leading 11th goal of the season on Saturday. "I just put my body in front of it and it went in."

UCLA outshot the Trojans, 17-6, and could have added to their lead but Christina DiMartino hit the underside of the crossbar in the 66th minute.

"It's just sweet to go to the quarterfinals," said UCLA coach Jillian Ellis. "We knew we had the toughest third round match in the country. USC is a very good team. It's a big win for us. We're just thrilled to be moving on."

Nov. 22 in Los Angeles
UCLA 1 USC 0. Goal: Larsen (Zerboni) 13.
UCLA -- Thompson, Barnes, Wilmoth, Hardy, Cook, DiMartino, Zerboni, Lang, Wright, Cheney, Larsen. Subs: Mathis, Mac Kechnie, Calvert, Zadro, Wall, Sharpe.
USC -- Olsen, Strong, Haug, Currier, Holmes, Kerridge, Sandoval, Nick, Tomer, Ohai, Rodriguez. Subs: Loucks, Davila, Johnson, Finch, Butcher.
Referee: Jesse Johnson.
Att.: 3,114.

NOTRE DAME 1 MINNESOTA 0.
Top-ranked Notre Dame was held by Minnesota until the seventh minute of overtime when Kerri Hanks slotted home a penalty kick to extend the Irish's record to 24-0-0 and left them to quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament for the fifth consecutive season. Hanks earned the penalty kick after she burst into the box and got off a weak shot as she was pulled down from behind.

Nov. 21 in Notre Dame, Ind.
Notre Dame 1 Minnesota 0. Goal: Hanks pen. 97.
Notre Dame -- Lysander, Schuveiller, Dew, Weber, Scheidler, Rosen, Augustin, Barg, Hanks, Henderson, Weissenhofer. Subs: Knaack, Mendoza, Iantorno.
Minnesota -- Dare, Kylie Kallman, Krystle Kallman, Clark, Rouse, Grimwood, Wagner, Rezac, Hood, Bethke, Schwartz. Sub: Strahota.
Referee: Ben Trevino.
Att.: 3,132.

FLORIDA STATE 1 BOSTON COLLEGE 0.
For the second time this year, it was a goal by Tori Huster that was the difference maker against Boston College. The freshman midfielder had scored the lone goal on a header back on Oct. 5 in Chestnut Hill. Florida State extended its school record unbeaten streak to 13 games (11-0-2)
 
Nov. 22 in Tallahassee, Fla.
Florida State 1 Boston College 0. Goal: Huster (Wagenfuhr) 65.
Florida State -- Milstead, Wagenfuhr, Sutton, Schmidt, Stephan, Huster, Short, DaCosta, Lim, McCarty, Talonen. Subs: Price, Switzer, Kazbour, Pressley.
Boston College -- Mastroianni, Walden, Pember, Cerrone, Wilson-Byrne, Hiler, Henderson, Regan, Caldwell, Knowlton, Wirth. Subs: Gimple, Crutchfield, Mcnicholas.
Referee: Tony Russo.
Att.: 1,140.

VIRGINIA 0, DUKE 2.
For the second year in a row, Duke won on the road to advance into the quarterfinals. Last year, the unseeded Blue Devils won at Indiana. This year, they beat ACC rival Virginia, 2-0, in a battle of No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. Senior goalkeeper Cassidy Powers' ninth shutout of the season tied Duke's single season record.

Nov. 22 in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia 0 Duke 2. Goals: Gummersall (Quinn) 17, Redmond 65.
Virginia -- Miles, Senty, Fries, Singer, Lenczyk, Krzysik, Rostedt, Farrelly, Flanagan, Miskel, Alwine. Subs: L.Miller, K.Quinn, Stewart, Kistner, Toulouse.
Duke -- Powers, G.Miller, Alukonis, FitzGerald, McDonald, McCann, Quinn, Redmond, Kreger, Gummersall, Hathorn. Subs: Kramer, Goodman, Newman, Bradley, Canepa.
Referee: Scott Johnson.
Att.: 511.

NORTH CAROLINA 3 ILLINOIS 0.
Carolina extended its scoreless streak to 671-plus minutes and advanced to the quarterfinals for the 25th time in 27 years. Midfielder Yael Averbuch started her 102nd consecutive game, breaking the UNC record for career games started that she had shared with three players.

Nov. 22 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina 3 Illinois 0. Goals: own goal 32, Wood (Hawkins, Bartok) 65, Nogueira (Long, Bartok) 67.
North Carolina -- Rodenbough, Engen, Givan, Eveland, Averbuch, Long, Hawkins, Long, Heath, Jones, McDonald, Nogueira. Subs: Bartok, Mathias, Harris, Boneparth, Wood, Frederick, Briggs, Moraca, Pfankuch, Klimczak.
Illinois -- Kapicka, Garrett, Zurrer, Kot, Alvis, Santacaterina, Bell, Steigerwald, Levitt, Hilbrands, Nweke. Subs: Ewing Desjarlais, Cooke, Khutson.
Referee: Kenneth George.
Att.: 1,852.

STANFORD 1 RUTGERS 0.
Stanford outshot Rutgers, 26-2, but didn't score until the 86th minute when Kelly O'Hara side-volleyed a ball from Christen Press and propelled the Cardinal into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.

Nov. 21 in Stanford, Calif.
Stanford 1 Rutgers 0. Goals: O'Hara (Press) 86.
Stanford -- Maker, Levin, Riley, Falk, Abegg, Jenkins, Stannard, McCann, Press, Taylor, O'Hara. Subs: Noyola, Heath.
Rutgers -- Guthrie, Montero, Wise, Hall, Lang, Anzivino, Medcalf, Jones, Edmonds, Sleiman, DeMaio. Subs: Dumont, Roarty.
Referee: Albert Montalvo.
Att.: 2,027.

PORTLAND 3 JAMES MADISON 2.
The Pilots extended their winning streak to a program-best 19 straight games and advances to the quarterfinals for the fifth straight year, but it wasn't easy. The Dukes came out aggressively and Teresa Rynier connected on their first shot of the game to give them a 1-0 advantage in the sixth minute. Freshman Danielle Foxhoven scored the tying goal and assisted on the go-ahead goals by Jessica Tsao and Korie Nicholson.

Nov. 22 in Portland, Ore.
Portland 3 James Madison 2. Goals: Foxhoven (Megan Rapinoe) 35, Tsao (Foxhoven) 43, Nicholson (Foxhoven) 55; Rynier (Remmes) 6, Julien (Tisinger) 84.
Portland -- Davis, Nicholson, McCluskie, Tsao, Sweeney, Jackman, Megan Rapinoe, Olivier, Burk, Foxhoven, Schmidt. Subs: Kreminski, Jacka.
James Madison -- Wszalek, Maykoski, Anderson-Golhor, Chupein, Strickland, Germain, Flateland, Julien, Rynier, Tisinger, Remmes. Subs: Bowers, Miller, Bell.
Referee: Juan Barone.
Att.: 4879.

FLORIDA 1 TEXAS A&M 2.
After Florida went ahead against the run of play, the third-seeded Aggies got goals 46 minutes apart from senior Laura Grace Robinson and freshman Jennifer Kmezich in the 40th minute and held on to beat the No. 2 seed Gators at the James G. Pressly Stadium. A&M moves on to the Elite Eight for the fourth time in program history.

Nov. 23 in Gainesville, Fla.
Florida 1 Texas A&M 2. Goals: Ruberry (Napolitano) 17; Robinson (Herrera, Kmezich) 40, Kmezich (West) 40.
Florida -- Fraine, Hyde, Kit, Howard, Chapman, Elliott, Annis, Napolitano, Ruberry, Abdullah, Kerns. Subs: Ray, Eicken, Avant, Thompson, Townsend.
Texas A&M -- Dyer, Gnatzig, Young, Peterson, Stephens, Robinson, Shipley, Herrera, West, Hooper, Tatum. Subs: Kmezich, Armstrong, Balaguer.
Referee: Paul Denton.
Att.: 1,182.