Maybe you spent the first weekend of September camped on the couch through gridiron marathons, watching Serena Williams win again or taking advantage of some post-Labor Day breathing room at the beach. Not a problem. We have the five developments you need to know from the weekend in college soccer.
1. Virginia Tech looks here to stay
When it reached the College Cup a season ago, Virginia Tech became the sixth school in the past decade to make it to the season's final weekend for the first time. That was the good news. The bad news is none of the other five schools has made it back. Few have even come close. Among the group, only Boston College advanced as far as an NCAA tournament quarterfinal in the years subsequent to its College Cup debut. Not since Florida State and UCLA emerged in the early part of the century, in fact, has a program successfully turned a debut into an annual tradition.
Yet, if you are inclined to believe Virginia Tech can be more than a one-hit wonder, Friday night provided confirmation of how much the program has changed.
Two years ago, Virginia Tech lost to Georgetown in Blacksburg, Virginia, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Friday night, in the same venue, the Hokies routed the Hoyas 6-1. Both teams entered the game undefeated and scoring goals in bunches. Only one looked like a national championship contender.
"They did to us what we do to a lot of teams," Georgetown coach Dave Nolan said. "They played at a pace quicker than we could play at."
It seems to be their thing. The Hokies scored 56 goals in 27 games a season ago, the production spread across 13 goal scorers. Unbeaten and untied through six games this season after closing the weekend with a win against UNC Wilmington, they already have 24 goals from 12 goal scorers.
They scored more goals in their first five games this season than in any previous five-game stretch in the history of the program.
How's that for a College Cup hangover?
The Hokies lost Jazmine Reeves, their co-leading scorer a season ago, to the National Women's Soccer League. The returning forward line of Murielle Tiernan and Shannon Mayrose is tall, athletic and imposing but must be managed carefully for the long haul, Tiernan because of cystic fibrosis and Mayrose because of myriad leg and foot injuries in what is now a six-year career in Blacksburg. Yet still the goals come at record pace because of the depth the Hokies continue to accumulate.
Playing as much on mental strength as anything else, Mayrose could have gone out after last season on a higher note than any player who preceded her in the program. That she's back suggests that she and the Hokies aren't done climbing.
"We're all on the same team doing the same thing with the same goals and the same mission," Mayrose said. "It's like we're all on the same page, and we're starting to connect now. I think that's why it's so fun, knowing what the next person is doing or how you can set someone up -- what movement they're making. It's so much fun."
2. Penn State's 'bull in a china shop'
A smile is not Penn State coach Erica Walsh's default facial expression, at least not on the sideline during games. But she couldn't help but grin in the aftermath of Sunday's 4-3 win at Duke, a game that saw the teams alternate goals all the way through the winner from Penn State's Raquel "Rocky" Rodriguez with a little more than six minutes to play.
Kids will drive you crazy, but they will also make it hard not to smile from time to time.
Of the 14 Penn State players on the field for at least 30 minutes against the Blue Devils, seven were freshmen. So comprehensive is the youth movement that even the coaching staff didn't bother plotting out how the pieces might fit together until the team took the field in preseason. But after Sunday's win and an overtime loss against North Carolina on Friday, Penn State is 4-1-0 against a top-tier schedule and entirely deserving of its top-10 ranking.
Nobody exemplifies the vibe around the Nittany Lions these days better than freshman Frannie Crouse. Effectively tasked with replacing All-American forward Maya Hayes, Crouse was too busy pressuring the ball all over the field Sunday to look daunted by expectations. And it was Crouse who got her body in front of a Duke defender on a late throw-in, corralled the ball as she held off the same defender and calmly played a pass to Emily Hurd, who in turn found Rodriguez for the winning goal.
"From a distance, she might look like a bull in a china shop, fast and strong and athletic," Walsh said. "But she arguably has grown the most in these four weeks, in taking feedback and applying it to her game. And when you think about players at the highest level, to me, that's one of the things that defines high-level players is their ability to apply concepts instantly."
3. UCLA picks up an endorsement
In addition to its overtime win against Penn State, North Carolina earned a second win against a ranked opponent when it beat Arkansas 2-1 on Sunday to win the Duke Nike Classic in Durham, North Carolina. It seemed a strong answer to a rough trip to the opposite coast a week earlier for the Tar Heels, who lost to Pepperdine and drew against UCLA.
Except that to hear North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance tell it, the draw on the road against top-ranked UCLA might rate as one of the best results of the season. The Bruins had a 12-4 edge in shots but could not score in 110 minutes.
"That's the best college team I have ever played against in my career," Dorrance said.
Granted, Dorrance hasn't faced many of the best teams in college soccer history because he happened to be busy coaching them, but that's still quite a statement about the Bruins, who beat Hawaii 6-0 and Pepperdine 2-0 this past weekend to remain unbeaten.
"I would be shocked if anyone tied them or beat them here on out," Dorrance continued.
And that would make the draw all the more important from the perspective of North Carolina history. Although both Stanford and Portland won national championships without losing a game, North Carolina remains the only school to complete a season unbeaten and untied (doing so five times, including four in a row). That much won't change.
"No one can consider them the greatest team of all time because they have this zit in the middle of their forehead," Dorrance quipped as ultimately only he can.
4. Florida takes Sunshine State bragging rights
Where do we sign up for the rematch between Florida and Florida State?
A 2-1 win for the Gators in Tallahassee extended a curious streak that has seen the road team win all but one game since 2007 in the annual series. The win for Florida also snapped its three-game losing streak in the series, including back-to-back shutouts. And it was a one-goal game, as all but one of the games have been since 2006.
But putting aside all of the quirks and streaks of the rivalry, it was mostly just a fantastically enjoyable soccer game between two teams with talent all over the field. Florida got a goal and an assist from Pamela Begic, and, although Florida State will rue a wayward finishing touch on some missed opportunities, it must also tip its cap to some strong last-gasp defending from Florida's Christen Westphal.
The question is: Can a rematch come in the College Cup, which finally returns to Florida this year after a long hiatus, or would it more likely be for a place in the national semifinals?
It's way too early to know whether there is room for both teams to claim No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, thus avoiding any potential quarterfinal meeting and perhaps setting the stage for a derby in the College Cup, but there is good reason to think Florida needed the win more than Florida State to make that scenario a reality.
Florida plays at Stanford this week, then enters an SEC schedule in which it faces Texas A&M, South Carolina and Kentucky, arguably its three toughest challengers, on the road in a 16-day stretch in October (in addition to a game at Arkansas in that stretch). Florida State, on the other hand, plays most of its most challenging ACC games in Tallahassee, giving it an opportunity to solidify its résumé in a place where, Friday's game notwithstanding, it rarely loses.
5. Clemson rules the Palmetto State
If Florida and Florida State played a game worth watching a second time, the in-state derby that saw Clemson upset ninth-ranked South Carolina 1-0 was difficult to get through even once. The play wasn't egregiously dirty, just excessively physical. The end result was seven yellow cards and 32 fouls. Even the game's lone goal was more scrappy than sublime, Shannon Horgan's corner kick ending up in the back of the net when South Carolina All-American keeper Sabrina D'Angelo made a rare mistake and inadvertently deflected it behind her while trying to punch it clear.
Not that Clemson need apologize for a lack of artistry. On the road in front of 5,855 fans, the biggest crowd in South Carolina history, the Tigers earned the most impressive win in coach Eddie Radwanski's two-plus seasons. Once an NCAA tournament regular, Clemson went 20-51-1 in the four seasons preceding Radwanski's move from UNC Greensboro. Hence a roster this season that includes 16 freshmen and sophomores, including assists leader Horgan, leading goal scorer Tori Andreski and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, like D'Angelo a Canadian youth international.
Clemson was a pest a season ago, drawing against Florida State and Duke and losing in overtime at Virginia Tech. It was prolific against modest competition early this season, piling up 16 goals in consecutive wins at Winthrop, Elon and VCU. But it was neither pest nor bully in Friday's game. It was an equal. The project isn't complete. There will be more days like Sunday's 1-1 draw against Charlotte, which came despite a 36-5 edge in shots for Clemson.
In other news
Not all the weekend's notable developments happened on the field, unfortunately. After a video surfaced of Syracuse senior Hanna Strong using a homophobic and racist slur in an apparently public setting, the school suspended the soccer player indefinitely Monday.