In addition to being crowned Mid-American Conference champion, the winner of Sunday's MAC women's soccer tournament will receive an automatic berth to the 2004 NCAA Tournament.
A chance to compete against larger schools that have a tremendous amount of name recognition and gain a larger audience is, undoubtedly, significant for a program for everything from morale to recruitment. But what will this year's MAC champion do with the opportunity?
Until Miami broke into the NCAA Tournament in 2000, returning the following two years to move past the first round with victories against West Virginia and Michigan State, respectively, MAC soccer teams were not extremely noticeable at the national level. Last season, Western Michigan continued the trend, making it to the second round of the NCAA tourney by defeating Illinois.
The better MAC teams definitely have the ability to compete with Big Ten and larger conference teams Ohio coach Stacy Strauss said.
With games against out-of-conference opponents usually scheduled for the preseason or very early in the regular season, MAC teams do not see their larger counterparts as often as they might like. In seven non-conference games this season, including two exhibition games, the Bobcats had a 1-5-1 record. Ball State had the best non-conference record in the MAC this season at 5-1-1, with victories against Illinois State and Indiana.
At the beginning of the season
we weren't quite gelled as a team. Now with more confidence in each other and the level we know we can play at we would prove to be much better competition for (higher-ranked) teams
Ohio tri-captain Kendra Hornschemeier said.
Whether MAC teams are prevalent in the tournament has seemed to have little effect on the whole of women's collegiate soccer, with only a handful of teams consistently at the top of the stat sheets and rankings.
In 17 of the 22 seasons since the NCAA adopted women's soccer in 1982, North Carolina claimed the championship. The Tar Heels hold many NCAA records including those for consecutive wins, conference wins, wins in a season and championships.
The years they did not win, North Carolina was the runner up three times. Out of the five other teams that have won the championship, George Mason (1985), Notre Dame (1995), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001) and Portland (2002) all have yet to repeat. The Nov. 2 NSCAA/adidas Division I coaches' poll had North Carolina (16-0-1) ranked No. 1 going into the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
They (UNC women's soccer) created a large amount of credibility that allows them to recruit the few elite players that come into the league every year with the complete package of speed
size and skill
Strauss said. Now
and more so in the future
you are starting to see other conferences create new powerhouses
because the way teams train
and the emphasis on the programs is primarily the same.
The first and second rounds of the 2004 NCAA Tournament will be Nov. 12 and 14.
