The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, sometimes known as the Women's College Cup, is an American college soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I women's national champion.

History

The NCAA began conducting a single division Women's Soccer Championship tournament in 1982 with a 12-team tournament. The tournament became the Division I Championship in 1986, when Division III was created for non-scholarship programs. Currently, the tournament field consists of 64 teams. The semifinals and final of the tournament, held at a single site every year, are collectively known as the Women's College Cup (analogous to the College Cup in men's soccer). Historically, North Carolina has been the dominant school in Division I women's soccer. Known widely as one of the most successful collegiate programs in any NCAA sport, the Tar Heels have won 22 national championships of the 31 NCAA tournaments contested. They also won the only AIAW national championship in soccer in 1981. The Tar Heels have reached the College Cup 30 times. Head coach Anson Dorrance is considered one of the greatest women's soccer coaches in NCAA history, leading the Tar Heels since the inception of the program in 1979. Only six other schools have multiple titles,

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

(3 titles, 5-times runner-up and 12 College Cup appearances), Florida State (3 titles, 3-time runner-up and 12 college cup appearances),

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

(3 titles, 2-times runner-up and 10 College Cup appearances), Santa Clara (2 titles, 1-time runner up and 11 College Cup appearances),

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

(2 titles, 1-time runner-up and 8 College Cup appearances), and

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

(2 titles, 2 College Cup appearances).

Champions

;Notes

Team titles

Performance by team

* First round * Round of 24 (1993 - 1994); Round of 32 (1995 - present) * Round of 12 (1982 - 1992); Round of 16 (1993 - present) * Quarterfinals * Semifinals * National Runner-up * National Champion In 2001 and 2002, the top 8 teams were seeded 1 through 8. The top 4 teams are shown with , and next 4 teams are shown with . Since 2003, the top 16 teams have been seeded, and the top 4 teams are shown with , and next 12 teams are shown with .

References

External links