The 2002 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 9th NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at the Kern County Soccer Complex in Bakersfield, California from Thursday, November 21 to Saturday, November 23, 2002.
Overview
Men's championship In the finals, 5-time, and reigning, champions BYU would face in-state rivals Weber State. Preceding the tournament, the teams had already played twice with BYU winning the first match 1–0 and both teams tying the second. In the group stage, BYU would win all three of their matches, first beating Indiana 2–0, then Delaware 5–1, and finally Rice 2–1. Meanwhile, Weber State would win their opener against Virginia 3–1, then would lose their second match 2–0 to Michigan, but would win their finale against Kansas 2–1 to secure second in the group.
In the knockout round, Weber State would win their first two games by a score of 3–1, first against Arizona in the quarterfinals and then against Delaware in the semifinals, to advance to their first finals. Meanwhile, BYU would win their quarterfinal matchup 6–2 against Illinois followed by a 3–0 win against Michigan to reach their 6th finals in their 7th tournament appearance, winning all 5 of their previous finals appearances.
In the finals, Tyson Craythorne of Weber State would open the scoring six minutes into the game giving BYU their first deficit of the tournament. Near the end of match, BYU's goalkeeper, Erik Walunas, would receive a red card denying Weber State of an obvious goal scoring opportunity on a breakaway. Shortly after, in the final minutes of the match, Weber State's Curtis Whitesides would score the second goal of the game and secure Weber State's first NIRSA title. Weber State's goalkeeper, Scott Badger, would be named the tournament's MVP after maintaining a shutout despite facing 24 shots. Following this tournament, BYU would move to the Premier Development League and would not play at the club level again until 2015.
Women's championship In the finals, 2000 champions, Michigan, would face two-time champion Colorado in a rematch of the 1999 semifinals which Michigan won 1–0, the 2000 quarterfinals that Michigan won in penalties, and their group stage finale in this tournament. In the group stage, both teams would beat Maryland and Texas A&M by the same score of 3–0 and 4–1, respectively. These results secured a knockout round berth for both teams going into the group stage finale but following a 2–2 draw, both teams were level on all tie-breaking metrics, meaning a coin flip would need to be used to determine group seeding. Michigan would lose the coin flip and end up 2nd in the group, meaning they'd have to play Group A winners, JMU, in the quarterfinals while Colorado would face Group D runners-up, Virginia Tech.
In the quarterfinals, Michigan would win 1–0 over JMU while Colorado would win 3–1 over Virginia Tech. In the semifinals, Michigan would beat San Diego State 3–0 while Colorado would beat two-time champion Miami (OH) 2–0. Both teams would make their third finals appearance.
In the finals, Colorado would open the scoring 5 minutes into the second half but Michigan would level the match 15 minutes later with a goal from junior, Bethany Dalby, on a penalty kick after it was deemed Colorado handled the ball in their own box. With five minutes remaining in the match, sophomore Gwen Reyes of Michigan would score what would go on to be the game-winning goal. Michigan's Katie Keller would be named tournament MVP and Michigan would become the fourth team to win two national titles following Miami (OH), Colorado, and Colorado State.
Men's open In the finals, Texas A&M would make their first finals and play against 2000 championship division winners, Penn State. Prior to this, in the group stage, both teams would top their groups after winning all three games, with Texas A&M defeating Oregon, Grand Valley State, and UC-Santa Barbara by a score of 1–0, 3–1, and 1–0 respectively and with Penn State defeating Colorado, Central Washington, and Wichita State by a score of 2–1, 2–0, and 5–1 respectively. In the quarterfinals, Texas A&M would defeat two-time open champions, JMU, by a score of 1–0 then would beat Colorado 3–0 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Penn State would beat UC-Santa Barbara 1–0 in the quarterfinals then beat Utah Valley State 2–0. In the finals, Texas A&M would defeat Penn State by their largest margin of victory in a 4–0 win and claim their first open title. Texas A&M's Joe Shine would be named the tournament's MVP.
Women's open In the finals, Delaware and Arizona would meet in what would be the first finals for both teams. In the group stage, both teams would win all 3 games with Arizona beating UC-Davis, Cornell, and Colorado "Black" by scores of 4–0, 3–0, and 2–1, respectively and with Delaware beating Colorado School of the Mines, Long Beach State (who did not attend), and Purdue by a score of 5–1, 1-0 (forfeit score), and 1-0 respectively.
In the knockout round, Arizona would defeat 1996 championship runners-up, Purdue, 2-1 then would beat 2000 open division champions Virginia 2–1 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Delaware would defeat Texas Tech in penalties following a 0–0 draw in regulation and overtime, then would beat reigning open champions Colorado "Black" 2–0 in the semifinals. In the finals, the game would end in a 1–1 draw after regulation, making it the second straight year overtime would be required in the finals. In overtime, Delaware would score the game winning, golden-goal to win their first open championship. Co-captain, Sarah White, of Delaware would be named the division's MVP.
Format The competition consisted of 64 teams partitioned into 32 teams per gender. Each of these partitions were further divided into two 16-team divisions: an invite-only championship division and an open division. These divisions divided teams into four groups of four and first engaged in a round-robin tournament. In these groups, teams played each of the other three teams in their group once with the two best teams at the end of play advancing to an 8-team, single-elimination, knockout stage. The first metric for determining the best team was points, calculated first by giving a team 6 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. Then, a team could be awarded an addition point for a shutout and an additional point for every goal scored, up to a max of 3 goals per game. If teams were tied on points, the following criteria were used in order: Winner of head-to-head competition Greatest goal difference Most goals scored Coin toss Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner. If a knockout-stage game was tied at the end of regulation, overtime would begin. Overtime in the quarterfinals consisted of two, 5-minute, golden-goal periods while in the semifinals and finals, overtime consisted of two, 10-minute, golden-goal periods. If still tied after overtime, kicks from the mark would determine the winner. Pool play and quarterfinal games were two 40-minute halves, separated by a seven-minute halftime with the semifinals and finals also being 40-minute halves, but having a ten-minute halftime. If a player received three yellow cards during the course of the tournament they would be suspended the following the game.
Qualification and selections Each of the six regions received two automatic bids for each the men's and women's championship divisions that they awarded to its members. The reigning champions, BYU in the men's division and Penn State in the women's division, received an automatic bid with the final 5 bids for each division considered "at-large", and given out by NIRSA to teams, typically based on their regional tournament results and RPI.
The remaining teams participated in the open division, chosen on a first-come first-serve basis via online registration beginning on September 3, 2002.
Men's championship +Participating teamsRegionTeamAppearanceLast BidICornell3rd2001IDelaware1stNeverIIVanderbilt1stNeverIIVirginia1stNeverIIIIllinois4th2001IIIMichigan3rd2001IIIIndiana2nd1995IVTexas7th2001IVKansas3rd2000IVRice1stNeverVColorado State6th2001VMinnesota2nd2001VIBYU7th2001VIWeber State4th2001VIArizona3rd2000VISan Diego State1stNever
Women's championship +Participating teamsRegionTeamAppearanceLast BidIPenn State8th2001IMaryland2nd1997IPrinceton1stNeverIIJMU6th2001IIVirginia Tech5th2001IIFlorida3rd2000IIIMiami (OH)9th2001IIIOhio State7th2000IIIMichigan4th2001IIIMichigan State2nd2001IVTexas A&M5th2001IVTexas5th1998VColorado8th2001VColorado State6th2001VISan Diego State4th2001VIUC-Santa Barbara3rd2001
Men's open +Participating teamsRegionNumTeamI1Penn StateII2Florida, JMUIII2Grand Valley State, Southern IllinoisIV1Texas A&MV3Colorado, Iowa State, Wichita StateVI7Arizona State, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-San Diego, Central Washington, Oregon, Utah Valley State, Weber State "B" Source:
Women's open +Participating teamsRegionNumTeamI2Cornell, DelawareII1VirginiaIII2Illinois, PurdueIV3Kansas, LSU, Texas TechV3Colorado Mines, Colorado State "Green", Colorado "Black"VI5Arizona, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, Long Beach State, UCLA Sources:
Group stage Men's championship +Group APosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Cornell321052 +31521Advanced to knockout stage2Vanderbilt311142 +214143Minnesota311123 −112124San Diego State301226 −4025
+Group BPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1BYU330092 +71726Advanced to knockout stage2Delaware310237 −413103Rice310223 −11294Indiana310224 −2028
+Group CPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Michigan321041 +32421Advanced to knockout stage2Weber State320154 +105173Kansas302134 −10394Virginia301225 −3025
+Group DPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Arizona312043 +11417Advanced to knockout stage2Illinois312032 +123173Colorado State303022022134Texas301235 −2036
Women's championship +Group APosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1JMU321084 +40722Advanced to knockout stage2Florida310266016133Michigan State311133003124Princeton310226 −4129
+Group BPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Colorado321093 +61824Advanced to knockout stage2Michigan321093 +618243Texas A&M310238 −513104Maryland300307 −7000
+Group CPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Miami (OH)321052 +31521Advanced to knockout stage2San Diego State311155005143Penn State303022022134Texas301225 −3126
+Group DPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1UC-Santa Barbara321062 +42623Advanced to knockout stage2Virginia Tech321031 +223203Ohio State310235 −213104Colorado State300326 −4022
Men's open +Group EPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Utah Valley State320165 +10618Advanced to knockout stage2JMU320142 +214173UC-San Diego311166016164Southern Illinois301247 +3047
+Group FPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Arizona State3210102 +81622Advanced to knockout stage2Weber State "B"320184 +427213Iowa State302114 −31184Florida3012211 −9025
+Group GPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Texas A&M330051 +42525Advanced to knockout stage2UC-Santa Barbara320141 +324183Grand Valley State310235 −20394Oregon300316 −5011
+Group HPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Penn State330092 +71726Advanced to knockout stage2Colorado320163 +316193Central Washington301225 −30254Wichita State301229 −7025
Women's open +Group EPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Arizona330091 +82828Advanced to knockout stage2Colorado "Black"320132 +123173Cornell301215 −40144UC-Davis301216 −5014
+Group FPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1Delaware230071 +62525Advanced to knockout stage2Purdue220151 +424183Colorado Mines210229 −71294Long Beach StateDid not attend
+Group GPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDSOGFPPtsQualification1UC-Berkeley321062 +42623Advanced to knockout stage2Illinois311155005143Kansas310254 +104104Colorado State "Green"310238 −5039