Notre Dame 3/North Carolina 2

Wow -- NC goes down 3-2 to Notre Dame. Only a #3 and a #4 seed left in the left half of the bracket.

PS - I thought Stanford was over-rated by the Tournament Committee, especially since USC tied them 1-1 at Stanford and they lost 2-0 to UCLA (also at Stanford, I can't remember?). Under the criteria the Committee is supposed to follow, I couldn't understand how they got seeded ahead of USC.

I thought UNC had issues all year.Their three losses were to unranked teams. that should never happen at the elite level. sometimes they struggled with offense, sometimes their defense fell apart.

Pretty amazing for a team with so much talent.

UCLA must be really foaming at the mouth. If they get by UP (never happen) they'd have a really juicy final four. They got thumped in the pairings as much as anybody. Any other bracket they'd have a (relatively) easy road to the finals. Instead they (probably) have to host a red-hot Pilots team with their big home unbeaten streak on the line. Talk about pressure (on them).

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!

ND had its own troubles early in the season. I thought they had no chance at redeeming their season. At one point, an undermanned Santa Clara stomped them 7-0. That was an indication to me that the Irish were in big trouble. They had no more "mental" fight in them. But boy, they have certainly turned things around, huh?

UNC has always been scary. What's our head to head record against them? 0-8...1-7..or something like that? They're so talent-rich! But, soccer is a team game and CHEMISTRY counts for a lot...how do individuals play with each other...for each other? I think its tough for some of the gals at UNC to go from being a Superstar All-American in HS and Club....to just being another "role player" on a team full of Superstar All-Americans. Many have to sit on the bench and wait for an opportunity. Many realize that they may have thrived and developed much faster and further...if they had decided to play at another school.

One of the best quotes I remembered about team play came from Megan Rapinoe. She said, "Being physical gives a statement to your team. It says I'll battle for you. And it shows the other team I will battle you".

That quote goes to the heart of why I love Pilot soccer. I love the unique technical skills each player brings to the table as individuals. I love how Coach Smith puts it all together and composes...the Pilot style of play. But mostly, I love the "FIGHT" that fuels this TEAM!

GO PILOTS!!!

I've been reading the UNC press releases since their loss. What strikes me is that in every one of them, they emphasize that they have only lost 7 NCAA games in their history.

Great record, but it's a new age. What they aren't quite so willing to point out is that they have failed to win it all in 5 of the last 7 years. UP, in that same span, has only been knocked out 4 times so far, and has won it the same number of times as UNC.

Right now Portland has a pretty good chance to better that record and lay claim to being the winningest team of the new Millennium.

That is a great point Purplegeezer. They continue to live off past glories in a age of parity. OK not complete parity, but certainly more so than when they were the dominant force in the universe.

GUPhantom - Wonderfully written with passion and heart!!! And ironically, I recall, when Megan played her 1st season here, she said she thought the team "was a little soft", (paraphrase), and that she wanted to bring an "attitude" to the group. That was at the beginning of 2005 - a rather nice year, indeed!

Geezer - Great point! If we could get that 3rd one - that would be 3 trophies in 6 years. Definitely a serious argument for team of the decade thus far. (Perhaps the "D" word?!?!?!) dynasty

And there is absolutely no question in my mind after seeing the Tennessee match, that we are most certainly a championship contender of the highest rank! However, that all means zip if we can't win 3 more games.

UCLA at home is a scary proposition to anyone. But if we go about our "business as usual" mentality, (thanks UPSFanatic for reminding us of that), we have as good a chance of beating them as any team in
the country!!!

ALL SHUTOUTS!!! ALL WINS!!!

What's even more amazing to me about the Pilots is that they have been able to do this all while being consistantly screwed by the NCAA selection committee virtually every year -- now that's sayin' something!!

-SciFi