The best advertisement for the strength of the ACC and Pac-12 in college soccer this past week came not in familiar places like Chapel Hill, North Carolina, or Palo Alto, California, but in Portland, Oregon, in the NWSL championship game. In all, 13 of the 19 starters in that game who played collegiate soccer in the United States did so for schools that are now part of the ACC or Pac-12.
Fittingly, the game's only goal came off a cross from former North Carolina star Heather O'Reilly, part of the dynasty that has won the most national championships, and was scored by former USC star Amy Rodriguez, part of the first Pac-12 team to win a national championship.
Next on the list of power alumni? The West Coast Conference, which produced four starters. And before getting to current events in both the ACC and Pac-12, the WCC is where we start this look at what is worth knowing from the past week in college soccer.
1. BYU builds a case without its star
Anyone who arrived at Portland's Merlo Field on Saturday expecting feats of athleticism from BYU's Ashley Hatch wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately for her team, it came at halftime when the junior propelled herself across the field on crutches faster than many could manage at a jog.
For the first time since she arrived on campus, No. 6 BYU played without Hatch this past week in wins at Gonzaga and Portland. What was described as a small fracture in Hatch's knee will keep her out of action for about a month, although coach Jennifer Rockwood said the injury will not require surgery. A forward whose breakout sophomore season put her on the Hermann Trophy radar, Hatch was tied for the team lead in goals this season and had more than twice as many shots as anyone else at the time she left the lineup.
Even without Hatch, BYU's strength seems like it should be on offense. Nadia Gomes and Elena Medeiros, each of whom scored in the 2-1 win against Portland, along with Michele Murphy Vasconcelos, are the kind of attacking talents expected of a top-five team. Gomes, in particular, seems capable of a breakout run not unlike Hatch had a season ago. Yet a team that Rockwood said begins every game with the objective of scoring at least three goals has yet to do that even once this season. Instead, BYU's strength has been its possession and an air-tight defense.
"We have fallen short [of scoring three goals], but we're scoring enough goals to get results," Rockwood said. "We're creating a lot of opportunities. In previous games we haven't been as efficient in front of goal. We're taking longer shots. So what we're trying to do is get the ball a little bit closer to the goal, a little bit more combination play. We scored two goals on six shots in the first half [against Portland], so you can't ask for much more than that, but I thought in the second half we had some opportunities. It would be nice for us to put a few more in, but as long as we're scoring one or two and we're getting results, that's all we need to do."
It might also seem BYU without Hatch has some margin for error nationally, the clear favorite in the WCC after Pepperdine, Portland and Santa Clara already took conference losses, but the Cougars have as much on the line each time out as almost any team in the country.
Averaging 4,192 fans per game through its first five home dates, BYU appears likely to end Portland's remarkable 10-year run as national attendance leader, and Provo has become one of the nation's most formidable home fortresses. Ranked fourth in the most recent RPI, BYU would be able to host the first four rounds of the NCAA tournament if it is among the top four overall seeds. A place among the top eight seeds would mean the potential for three home games. The problem is that in what isn't a banner year for the often major-level WCC, only Santa Clara also ranked among the RPI top 40 a week ago (the two meet at Santa Clara on Oct. 24).
The math means that with or without Hatch, anything other than a win in the final seven games of the regular season could have costly ripple effects.
"We know our best opportunity, if we get to the tournament, is if we're at home," Rockwood said. "So yes, it's certainly something we're talking about. Right now, we don't have as big a control over our RPI, but we feel like we did everything we could prior to our conference starting."
2. Arizona gambles on Pac-12 lead and loses
Let's be clear: No. 17 Arizona had a very good week, one worthy of one of the best 20 teams in the country. In a 3-2 loss to Stanford, it just couldn't beat the best team in the Pac-12.
Not exactly unproven as Pac-12 games began, not after wins out of conference against Santa Clara and San Diego State and a draw against Texas Tech, Arizona nonetheless boosted its own stock with a 1-0 win against No. 23 California on Friday. Even as the Wildcats improved a season ago, they won just a single conference game against an eventual NCAA tournament team. They already have two Pac-12 wins this season against near locks for the postseason. As a result, a share of first place was up for grabs in Sunday's home game against No. 5 Stanford.
From the outset, Arizona gave Stanford acres of room in the midfield, most notably to midfielder Andi Sullivan from her deep-lying position. Asked about the strategy during the broadcast, Arizona coach Tony Amato said Stanford can make any game feel as if the Cardinal have 13 players on the field, so he felt he had to cede something, in this case long-range shots. Arizona paid for it once when Stanford's Haley Rosen curled in a shot from outside the 18-yard box to tie the score 1-1 in the 23rd minute, then again when Sullivan hit a shot in off the post from distance. To be fair to Amato, Stanford's overwhelming edge in possession on the day didn't result in a commensurate number of scoring chances. In fact, it still looked for a time like Arizona might salvage a draw when Gabi Stoian, against the run of play and off a rare errant Sullivan pass, tied the game late in regulation. But Stanford's 28th shot, courtesy of Kyra Carusa, proved to be the winner in double overtime.
3. Defense rules surprise results
Soccer has its complexities. It also isn't all that complicated at times. If you want to pull off a surprise result, it's best not to let the favored team score many goals.
• Pulling off her best imitation of Tim Howard against Belgium, freshman Katelyn Jensen made 13 saves for Kentucky in a 1-1 draw at No. 12 Florida. A starter from the outset in her first season, Jensen nonetheless entered the game with all of 22 saves in her first 12 games.
• Familiar to some from her appearance for Colombia against the United States in the World Cup, Miami's Catalina Perez made six saves as the Hurricanes upset No. 14 Notre Dame 1-0 in double overtime despite a big edge in shots for the Fighting Irish.
• Wisconsin goalkeeper Caitlyn Clem didn't have to make many saves in a 1-0 rivalry win against No. 11 Minnesota, but she was part of a defensive effort that recorded the team's fourth shutout in a row. Its season in some trouble after a 4-0 loss against Penn State, Wisconsin, if not wholly out of the woods, appears solidly back on an NCAA tournament trajectory.
4. Portland on the brink
If ever a week encapsulated a season, it was so for Portland in recent days. The Pilots weren't quite as good as one of the nation's better teams against BYU but held their own and still had an opportunity to come away with at least a draw. They were better than San Diego two days prior, dominating possession and piling up a 19-1 edge in shots, but still came out on the wrong end of a 1-0 loss after a miscue led to a goal on an early corner kick.
Almost all of the losses are by one goal, some in heartbreaking or head-scratching fashion, but Portland is 4-8-0 with seven games to play in the regular season (the WCC doesn't hold a conference tournament). That makes for a simple and painful path for the Pilots. If they don't go at least 6-1 down the stretch, they can't make the NCAA tournament, not that their RPI makes an at-large bid likely even if they do avoid a losing record. A program that missed the tournament just once between 1992 and 2013, and won two national championships during that span, is going to fall short for the second season in a row. Portland still plays good soccer, it still has talent -- junior Allison Wetherington is very capable of becoming the next in a long line of Pilots in the professional ranks -- but the program just can't seem to catch a break at the moment.
5. No. 1 vs. No. 2 awaits
It doesn't require much in the way of explanation why the most notable game on the horizon comes Sunday when No. 1 North Carolina visits No. 2 Florida State (ESPN3, noon ET).
The Tar Heels, for whom being ranked No. 1 is much like riding a bike, were efficient in their first week back in that familiar perch. They outshot Wake Forest and Boston College by a combined 41-7 margin in wins and kept clean sheets in back-to-back games for the first time since four in a row to begin the year. Overwhelming forces and moments of special class from individuals like Summer Green, quietly enjoying a strong senior season, and Joanna Boyles. We've seen that recipe before for North Carolina. What we haven't seen when it comes to Anson Dorrance's dynastic program is a five-game winless streak against an opponent. Any opponent. Ever. North Carolina did end a four-game losing streak against Florida State with a 1-1 draw a season ago, but its last win in the series came in Tallahassee on Sept. 29, 2011.
To put that in context, those four most recent losses represent nearly 10 percent of the total regular-season losses incurred by Dorrance in 34 seasons during the NCAA era.
Florida State and North Carolina offer such a contrast in style of play that they sometimes never quite meet in the center of the ring, their games instead tactical stalemates. But with these two programs, especially at the top of the rankings, there is always reason to hope for a classic.
Big weeks also loom for Tigers of various varieties. Auburn visits South Carolina on Thursday, then hosts Texas A&M on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the ACC shadow of the game in Tallahassee, Clemson hosts Virginia and Virginia Tech in a telling homestand (in both cases, along with the Auburn-South Carolina game, conditions willing after recent heavy flooding in the state).