Dec. 8, 2002

Recap| Box Score| Quotes| Photo Gallery

Portland

Portland improved to 15-0 when scoring two or more goals this season. The Pilots also finish the year with a 20-1-2 record when allowing fewer than two goals in a game.

With a goal coming with 6:33 left in the second overtime of the championship game against Santa Clara, Christine Sinclair garnered her NCAA single-season record 10th goal of the tournament while improving her NCAA single-season record for points in the tournament to 21.

Portland's Christine Sinclair scored a goal in five of her team's six games during the 2002 NCAA Tournament, including two in the championship match against Santa Clara. Notably, Sinclair scored at least two goals in four of Portland's six NCAA Tournament games and also became the only opponent of Santa Clara's this year to tally two scores in one game.

Portland is now 15-0 when Christine Sinclair scores and 9-0 when she scores twice.

Pilots' goalkeeper Lauren Arase allowed only one goal throughout the entire 2002 NCAA Tournament (six games) for a 0.16 goals against average.

Santa Clara

Santa Clara ended the season 16-1-1 when scoring first this season.

The Santa Clara goal by Devvyn Hawkins at 52:08 of the NCAA title game was her third in four games and sixth on the year. The assist by Chardonnay Poole, meanwhile, was her first of the season.

With Portland tallying 24 shots during the NCAA title game, it marked the most shots allowed by Santa Clara to an opponent during the 2002 season.

Veronica Zepeda's second goal against the Tar Heels on Dec. 6 tied her with Mandy Clemens for the school record for most goals in a tournament with four.

With a 1-0 halftime lead against UNC on Dec. 6, Santa Clara became the first team to hold the Tar Heels' scoreless in any first half during this year's NCAA Tournament.

2002 College Cup Tournament

The 2002 Women's College Cup drew the second-highest combined attendance (both semifinals and finals) for any women's College Cup in history according to the NCAA record book with 20,067 attending the three games in Austin, Texas.

The attendance figures of 10,040 (semifinals) and 10,027 (final) for the 2002 Women's College Cup at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, on Dec. 6 & 8 marked the fourth and fifth highest single-game attendance, respectively, in NCAA women's soccer history. Additionally, while they were the highest attendance in stadium history for soccer, they were also the second and third largest attendance, respectively, during NCAA Women's College Cup semifinal history.

The championship matchup between Santa Clara and Portland marked the third time that two teams for the same conference advanced to the championship final. The other two pitted North Carolina against Duke in 1992 and North Carolina against N.C. State in 1988.

Today's 2-1 Portland win over Santa Clara was the third straight NCAA Women's Soccer Championship game to be decided by one goal.

Today's overtime championship game is only the third in NCAA title game history. The other two: 1995 when Notre Dame defeated Portland 1-0 in three overtimes and in 1996 when UNC defeated Notre Dame, 1-0 in two overtimes. Portland's NCAA Championship victory marks the first in school history for soccer. The Pilots lost to Notre Dame in the 1995 final by penalty kicks. The game-tying goal by Portland's Christine Sinclair at 60:18 of the championship match against Santa Clara was her ninth of the tournament and gave her 19 points during 2002 NCAA Tournament action. Notably, with a goal in Portland's semifinal match against Penn State on Dec. 6, Sinclair broke the tournament point record previously held by North Carolina's Mia Hamm, who tallied 16 points in 1993.

With Portland holding a No. 8 seed in the 2002 tournament field, the Pilots become the lowest-seeded team to make and win the championship game since the NCAA Tournament began seeding eight teams in 1994. Prior to 2002, the lowest seed to make the final was UCLA, which was a sixth seed that lost to UNC by a score of 2-1 in 2000.

Portland is just the fourth team ever and first team since the 64-team tournament field expansion in 2001 to enter the NCAA title game not having given up a tournament goal. Notably, all four of those teams eventually won the title with the last to do so being Notre Dame, who defeated Portland by a score of 1-0 in three overtimes in 1995. The last time that North Carolina did not reach the final was 1995 when they lost to Notre Dame by a score of 1-0. Of note, the Fighting Irish went on to win the NCAA Championship that year.

Coming into the title game, Santa Clara was riding an 11-game tournament winning streak. The longest tournament winning streak was 29 by North Carolina during their nine consecutive championships from 1986 to 1994; Notre Dame's championship run in 1995 ended UNC's historic run.

2002 All-College Cup Team