Aaron Rodgers has thrown a lot of touchdowns in the past five seasons. That he has barely been the most prolific scorer in the Green Bay area in that span shouldn't diminish his success.
All right, so the Packers quarterback isn't in any danger of being overshadowed in northern Wisconsin, but a few hours before he threw two more touchdown passes Sunday, St. Norbert College fifth-year senior Katie Vanden Avond took a shot that smacked off the crossbar and over the goal line before it ricocheted back onto the field in De Pere, Wisconsin, a short few miles from Lambeau Field. That it was the only goal in a 1-0 win against Grinnell or her seventh goal of the week matters less than that it was the 124th goal of her career. No player in Division III has ever scored more, and Vanden Avond is now tied with Katie Pettigrew of Luther College.
Only one player in any division is ahead of them. One player out of the tens of thousands who have played college soccer.
After Sunday's game, to Vanden Avond's surprise, the school retired her jersey. Rodgers will have to wait for that.
What could keep her out of the five things you need to know this week? Glad you asked.
1. From the bubble to first place -- on, Wisconsin
It was not, all things considered, a great weekend for Michigan and late leads.
On the strength of two more wins, including, yes, a near-miraculous rally against poor Michigan, it was another very good week in what has been a wonderful stretch of weeks for Wisconsin.
Ranked No. 14 in the preseason with expectations for a potential deep postseason run, Wisconsin was instead 3-4-2 and very much unranked after a loss at Penn State on Sept. 17. The Badgers then went on a 5-0-1 streak in the Big Ten in which they didn't gave up a goal. But the shutout streak ended early against Michigan on Thursday, and a second goal midway through the second half left that six-game unbeaten streak in seemingly similar peril ... or not. Three unanswered goals in the final 25 minutes, including two in the span of 118 seconds in the waning stages, propelled Wisconsin to a 3-2 win.
The Badgers then returned to normal, at least of the recent variety, with a 1-0 win against Michigan State on Sunday courtesy of a Rose Lavelle header in the closing minutes. The wins against teams that were ranked ahead of Wisconsin a week ago in the RPI top 50 not only put the Badgers in first place in the Big Ten but dramatically strengthened their postseason résumé. More than that, the comeback against Michigan revealed something about the larger comeback this season, not just in terms of perseverance, but of the offensive diversity to produce goals.
Early in the season Wisconsin struggled to replace the goal scorers it lost from last season's NCAA tournament team. Even with Lavelle, goals proved scare in August and September.
A starter throughout her time in Madison but rarely in the role of goal scorer, McKenna Meuer began the comeback against Michigan with her team-best sixth goal of the season. A Canadian youth international overshadowed only by virtue of playing on a team with Lavelle, Kinley McNicoll then tied it with her fourth goal of the season -- and fourth during the unbeaten streak. Then redshirt senior Nikki Greenhalgh, who scored just two goals as a reserve in her first three seasons, scored the winner near the end of her 10th start of the season.
This isn't to say the Badgers, with three conference wins by 1-0 margins, are an offensive juggernaut. But asked to show up in one of the season's pivotal moments, they found goals without depending on the star who will likely train with the national team in the months ahead.
That Wisconsin is alone in first place (all the more important because the highest remaining seed after the quarterfinals hosts the semifinals and final in the Big Ten tournament) is thanks to No. 25 Rutgers, which beat No. 9 Penn State 1-0 on Sunday. That makes two wins in the series in the past two seasons for Rutgers, more than the rest of the conference combined.
2. Duke finally wins the derby
Duke accomplished quite a bit on the soccer field over the past decade. It played for a national championship; made the NCAA tournament in eight of the nine seasons preceding the current one; and recruited, signed and developed All-Americans and youth world champions. It beat ACC foes Florida State, Notre Dame and Virginia in that span. What it did not manage during those years, what it hadn't since Oct. 9, 2005, was to beat the team down the street in Chapel Hill.
It picked a good time to change that, beating No. 7 North Carolina 1-0 for its third win in an all-time series that now encompasses 41 games. It picked a good time because as much as it helped the historical record, Duke's road win at Fetzer Field makes the present more appealing.
The Blue Devils, who missed the NCAA tournament a season ago for the first time since 2002, probably weren't in any postseason danger even before the rivalry game. But the win on Imani Dorsey's second goal of the season clinched a winning record and burnished their résumé. Now a team still looking for offensive efficiency can do so without the pressure of being on the NCAA bubble.
One piece of discouraging news related to Duke, which almost completely bypassed its bench against North Carolina's waves of substitutions, was the absence of Cassie Pecht. The fourth-year sophomore whose career has been sabotaged by injuries missed her first game this season with what the team's Twitter account described as an injury, without further specifics.
3. The paradox of life in the Big 12
The better No. 3 West Virginia looks against them, the worse the rest of the Big 12 looks, which in turn will inevitably make people question how impressive those impressive wins really are.
It would be a no-win situation, if not for all the, well, wins the Mountaineers keep piling up.
While Texas recorded the most important win of the week in the Big 12 in the short term, boosting its résumé by stunning Texas Tech on the road in the closing seconds of the second overtime on yet another scoring contribution from goalkeeper Abby Smith, West Virginia continued to make a long-term statement. A week after it demolished Texas Tech in what looked on paper like one of the biggest tests of its short time in the conference, the Mountaineers rolled over Kansas and Iowa State by scores of 6-0 and 4-0, respectively.
For those counting, that moves West Virginia's all-time Big 12 record to 25-1-3.
That West Virginia has scored 14 goals in three games since it managed no goals on 33 shots in a 0-0 draw at Oklahoma may not be a coincidence. This may be the best offensive version of the team since it moved to the Big 12, midfielder Amanda Hill contributing two goals and two assists this week in addition to the familiar goals from Michaela Abam and Kailey Utley.
4. UCLA is on the brink after loss
UCLA has reached the NCAA tournament every year since 1997, but it doesn't just make the bracket and call it a day. The program's 55 wins in 19 appearances work out to nearly three wins per appearance, which means a trip to the Sweet 16 is essentially the norm in Westwood. Only Florida State, North Carolina and Notre Dame average more wins per all-time appearance.
In other words, the soccer season in Los Angeles, at least that part of it controlled by the Bruins, is in danger of ending considerably earlier than normal after UCLA's 2-1 loss at Oregon State on Saturday. A week after potentially salvaging their postseason hopes with a win against Arizona and draw against Arizona State, the Bruins are back in murky waters.
UCLA has five games remaining, including a road weekend at California and Stanford and the regular-season finale at home against USC. It must win more than it loses, be it 3-2-0, 2-1-2 or 1-0-4, to be eligible for the NCAA tournament (5-0-0 would be just fine, too). But more than that, it needs to win at least one of those three aforementioned games, in addition to next week's home games against Colorado and Utah, to have a résumé worthy of postseason consideration.
5. The best week of the season awaits
The game of the week is No. 1 Florida State at No. 2 Virginia on Sunday (ESPNU, 1 p.m. ET), a rematch of last year's national championship game and the second time in three weeks that the defending champion will be part of an encounter between the top two teams in the polls. But it speaks to what kind of week is ahead that to even get to Charlottesville unscathed, Florida State must first stop in Blacksburg, Virginia, to play No. 12 Virginia Tech on Thursday (ESPN3, 7 p.m. ET).
Or that the game between the Seminoles and Hokies may not be the best on the schedule that night. Not with a showdown in the SEC between No. 8 South Carolina and No. 13 Florida (SEC Network, 7 p.m. ET), the former off a loss at Vanderbilt that opened the door for both Florida and underrated Missouri to move into a first-place tie, with Auburn, Mississippi and Texas A&M just a point behind.
Thursday also offers North Carolina trying to avoid the first four-game losing streak in program history against No. 14 Notre Dame (ESPN3, 7 p.m. ET) and No. 4 Stanford visiting No. 16 Washington State.
Saturday brings the biggest game of the season in the West Coast Conference and the best chance for No. 5 BYU to help itself in the race for NCAA tournament seeding and postseason home games when it visits No. 19 Santa Clara. Even as they win without injured All-American Ashley Hatch, the Cougars have slipped enough in RPI, 10 spots in a matter of weeks, that they trailed the Broncos in the most recent release.
All of that is prelude to Sunday, which in addition to the game in Charlottesville offers Clemson at North Carolina, Notre Dame at Duke (ESPN 3, 1 p.m. ET) and Stanford at Washington.