2011 NIRSA National Soccer Championship

2011 NIRSA National Soccer Championship
League	NIRSA
Sport	Soccer
Site	Reach 11 Sports Complex Phoenix, Arizona
Duration	November 17–19, 2011
Number of teams	24 (Championship) 16 (Open)
Results	Official Results
Men's Championship Division
Score	0–0 (a.e.t.) 4–3 (pen.)
Champion	Weber State (3rd title, 3rd title game)
Runners-up	Missouri (2nd title game)
Season MVP	Cord Stimpson (Weber State)
Women's Championship Division
Score	1–0
Champion	UC-Santa Barbara (6th title, 7th title game)
Runners-up	Cal Poly (1st title game)
Season MVP	Laura Caparelli (UC-Santa Barbara)
Men's Open Division
Score	5–0
Champion	UC-San Diego (1st title, 1st title game)
Runners-up	Texas "B" (3rd title game)
Season MVP	James Somerville (UC-San Diego)
Women's Open Division
Score	2–0
Champion	Missouri (1st title, 1st title game)
Runners-up	UC-Berkeley (1st title game)
Top seed	Lou Opfer (Missouri)

The 2011 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 18th NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at Reach 11 Sports Complex, in Phoenix, Arizona from Thursday, November 17 to Saturday, November 19, 2011.^[1]

In the finals, reigning runners-up, Missouri, would face the 2009 champions, Weber State. In the group stage, Missouri would win their opener 2–1 against 2008 runner-up, Colorado State, but would lose their finale 1–2 against 2007 champions, UC-Santa Barbara to finish second in their group. Meanwhile, Weber State would win their opener 3–1 over Delaware then would defeat Minnesota 2–1 to top their group.

In the knockout round, Missouri would be deadlocked 0–0 with 2000 champions, Penn State, in the round of 16 after regulation and extra time meaning they would require penalty kicks, which they won 3–0. They would then defeat 2004 champions Texas A&M 1–0 to advance to the semifinals. Meanwhile, Weber State would defeat UConn 1–0 in the round of 16 then would defeat Cal Poly 3–0 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Missouri would defeat Minnesota 1–0 while Weber State would defeat North Carolina 3–0 to advance to their second finals in three years.

In the finals, the game would remain tied 0–0 at the end of regular time and extra time, meaning a penalty shootout would decide the champion for the second time in three years. Missouri would kick first and the first 2 rounds saw all four kicks being saved while the next 3 rounds saw all six being scored, meaning an extra round of kicks would be needed. In the sixth round of kicks, Missouri would hit the crossbar while Korbin Tafoya of Weber State would score, giving Weber State the title, their second in three years and their third overall. Weber State's Cord Stimpson would be named men's championship MVP.^[2][3]

In the finals, regulars UC-Santa Barbara would return to their fifth straight women's championship finals to face finals debutants Cal Poly. Coming into the finals, UC-Santa Barbara won every game except the quarterfinals by at least 2 goals, including a 8–0 victory in the group stage. However, the quarterfinals did require extra time against Pitt, which they won 2–1. Meanwhile, Cal Poly tied their opener to eventual consolation champions Ohio State, but would win their next four games. In the finals, eventual women's championship MVP Laura Caparelli of UC-Santa Barbara would score in the 24th minute. This goal would be enough to separate the teams, leading UC-Santa Barbara to their sixth title and their fifth straight, the longest consecutive title streak across all four divisions. This title also gave them sole possession of the most titles for a single team with six, over taking BYU in the men's championship division.

In the finals, inaugural champions, Texas "B", would face regional tournament runners-up, UC-San Diego. In the knockout round, Texas "B" would face Colorado "Black", a team that also had a separate team playing in the championship division, in the quarterfinals and would win 3–1 then would beat Northeastern 2–0 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, UC-San Diego would require penalty kicks in both their knockout stage games, first against intra-city rivals San Diego State which they won 2–2 (4–3) then intrastate opponents USC 0–0 (5–4). In the finals, UC-San Diego would dominate winning 5–0 and claiming their first men's open title. UC-San Diego sophomore James Somerville would be named men's open MVP.^[4]

In the finals, two teams would be making their first finals appearance: Missouri and UC-Berkeley. Coming into the finals, Missouri would win both games knockout games 2–0, first against 2009 women's open champions JMU and then against reigning women's open champions Illinois. Meanwhile, UC-Berkeley would require penalty kicks in their quarterfinal matchup against 2009 runners-up Oregon then would beat intrastate rivals USC 3–0. In the finals, Missouri would win 2–0 to claim their first women's open title.

The competition consisted of 80 teams: 48 championship division teams and 32 open division teams. Each of these divisions were further divided into two equal sized divisions for men and women. The championship division divided teams into eight groups of three teams each while the open division divided teams into four groups of four teams each, both engaging in a round-robin tournament that determined teams able to advance to a knockout stage. Pool play games were two 40-minute halves, separated by a seven-minute halftime and utilized the three points for a win system. After group stage play, the two highest ranked teams from each group advanced to their respective knockout stage. In the championship division, the third placed team advanced to a consolation bracket while in the open division, the third and fourth placed teams were eliminated.

Tie-breaking criteria for group play

The ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria in order: Highest number of points Winner of head-to-head competition Greatest goal difference Maximum ± 5 goal difference per match Most goals scored Most shutouts In a tie breaking scenario involving more than 2 teams, the tiebreaker procedure would begin. If one team is identified as different and both remaining teams are still tied, the tie breaker procedure is restarted. If a tie still remained after the first 5 criteria, the following was used to break a tie: NCAA kicks from the mark If there was a three-way tie, a coin-flip would be conducted. The two teams that chose the same outcome would compete in kicks from the mark between each other. The winner would compete with the last remaining team in kicks from the mark If there's a four-way tie, a drawing of lots would be conducted (only could occur in open division)

Knockout stage games also consisted of two 40-minute halves. The round of 16 and quarterfinals were separated by a seven-minute halftime while the semifinals and finals had a ten-minute halftime. Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner, therefore if a game was tied at the end of regulation, one 15-minute, golden-goal overtime period would begin. If still tied after overtime, kicks from the mark would determine the winner.^[5]

Each of the six regions received three automatic bids for both the men's and women's championship that they awarded to its members. The final six bids were considered "at-large", and were given out by NIRSA to teams, typically based on their regional tournament results and RPI.^[6]

The 32 remaining teams participated in the open division, chosen on a first-come first-serve basis online on September 28, 2011^[7]

Participating teams

Region	Team	Appearance	Last Bid
I	Penn State	11th	2009
I	Navy	9th	2010
I	Delaware	7th	2010
I	UConn	1st	Never
II	North Carolina	10th	2010
II	Florida	6th	2010
II	Georgia	6th	2009
III	Michigan	10th	2010
III	Ohio State	7th	2009
III	Indiana	6th	2008
III	Michigan State	5th	2009
III	Northwestern	2nd	2010
IV	Texas	13th	2010
IV	Texas A&M	12th	2010
IV	Missouri	6th	2010
IV	Texas State	5th	2009
V	Colorado State	15th	2010
V	Colorado	12th	2010
V	Minnesota	10th	2010
VI	Weber State	11th	2010
VI	Arizona	10th	2010
VI	UC Santa Barabara	8th	2009
VI	UC Berkeley	4th	2009
VI	Cal Poly	3rd	2010

Source:^[8][9]

Participating teams

Region	Team	Appearance	Last Bid
I	Penn State	17th	2010
I	Delaware	9th	2010
I	Cornell	6th	2010
I	Pitt	2nd	2010
II	Virginia Tech	11th	2010
II	Florida	10th	2010
II	North Carolina	8th	2010
II	Virginia	6th	2010
III	Michigan	13th	2010
III	Ohio State	11th	2010
III	Michigan State	8th	2009
III	Indiana	3rd	2004
III	Marquette	3rd	2010
IV	Texas	12th	2010
IV	TCU	1st	Never
IV	Wash U	1st	Never
V	Colorado	17th	2010
V	Colorado State	15th	2010
V	Colorado Mines	2nd	2009
VI	UC-Santa Barbara	11th	2010
VI	San Diego State	9th	2008
VI	Arizona	7th	2010
VI	UCLA	5th	2010
VI	Cal Poly	2nd	2009

Participating teams

Region	Num	Team
I	4	Penn, SUNY Cortland, Northeastern, Villanova
II	1	Kennesaw State
III	0	–
IV	1	Texas "B"
V	2	Colorado "Black", Colorado Mines
VI	8	Cal Poly "B", UC-Irvine, Northern Arizona, Southern Cal (USC), San Diego State, UC-Santa Cruz, UCLA, UC San Diego

Participating teams

Region	Num	Team(s)
I	3	Northeastern, SUNY Cortland, Villanova
II	4	Kennesaw State, MTSU, JMU, Vanderbilit
III	1	Illinois
IV	1	Missouri
V	1	Colorado "Black"
VI	6	Southern Cal (USC), Arizona State, Salt Lake CC, Oregon, UC-Berkeley, Northern Arizona

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Michigan State	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	UC-Berkeley	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4
3	Navy	2	0	0	2	2	6	−4	0	Consolation

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UC-Santa Barbara	2	2	0	0	4	1	+3	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Missouri	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
3	Colorado State	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	0	Consolation

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Penn State	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Texas State	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1	3
3	Ohio State	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2	1	Consolation

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Colorado	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Cal Poly	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2	3
3	Texas	2	0	1	1	2	5	−3	1	Consolation

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Florida	2	1	0	1	5	3	+2	3	Advanced to knockout stage
2	UConn	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
3	Michigan	2	1	0	1	2	4	−2	3	Consolation

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Arizona	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	North Carolina	2	0	2	0	3	3	0	2
3	Indiana	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1	Consolation

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Northwestern	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Texas A&M	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4
3	Georgia	2	0	0	2	0	2	−2	0	Consolation

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Weber State	2	2	0	0	5	2	+3	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Minnesota	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	3
3	Delaware	2	0	0	2	1	5	−4	0	Consolation

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UC-Santa Barbara	2	2	0	0	10	0	+10	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	TCU	2	0	1	1	0	2	−2	1
3	Colorado Mines	2	0	1	1	0	8	−8	1	Consolation

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Colorado	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Cornell	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1
3	Virginia	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2	1	Consolation

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Michigan	2	2	0	0	6	2	+4	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Texas	2	1	0	1	7	6	+1	3
3	Delaware	2	0	0	2	3	8	−5	0	Consolation

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cal Poly	2	1	1	0	4	2	+2	4	Advanced to knockout stage
2	North Carolina	2	1	0	1	4	3	+1	3
3	Ohio State	2	0	1	1	1	4	−3	1	Consolation

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Michigan State	2	2	0	0	4	2	+2	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Wash U	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
3	Arizona	2	0	0	2	4	6	−2	0	Consolation

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Florida	2	2	0	0	5	0	+5	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Penn State	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2	1
3	SDSU	2	0	1	1	1	4	−3	1	Consolation

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UCLA	2	2	0	0	11	3	+8	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Virginia Tech	2	1	0	1	2	3	−1	3
3	Indiana	2	0	0	2	3	10	−7	0	Consolation

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pittsburgh	2	2	0	0	4	2	+2	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Marquette	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
3	Colorado State	2	0	0	2	1	3	−2	0	Consolation

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Penn	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Cal Poly “B”	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5
3	UC Irvine	3	0	2	1	7	9	−2	2
4	Northern Arizona	3	0	1	2	3	8	−5	1

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Southern Cal	3	2	1	0	9	1	+8	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Northeastern	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
3	SUNY Cortland	3	1	0	2	1	7	−6	3
4	Kennesaw State	3	1	0	2	5	8	−3	3

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Colorado “Black”	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	SDSU	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
3	UC Santa Cruz	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
4	Villanova	3	1	0	2	1	3	−2	3

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UC San Diego	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Texas “B”	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
3	Colorado Mines	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
4	UCLA	3	0	2	1	0	1	−1	2

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Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Illinois	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Southern Cal (USC)	3	2	0	1	9	5	+4	6
3	Arizona State	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
4	Kennesaw State	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Salt Lake CC	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Colorado “Black”	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7
3	Northeastern	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3
4	MTSU	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	JMU	3	3	0	0	9	0	+9	9	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Oregon	3	2	0	1	6	2	+4	6
3	Vanderbilt	3	1	0	2	1	4	−3	3
4	SUNY Cortland	3	0	0	3	0	10	−10	0

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UC-Berkeley	3	2	1	0	10	1	+9	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Missouri	3	2	1	0	8	1	+7	7
3	Northern Arizona	3	1	0	2	3	10	−7	3
4	Villanova	3	0	0	3	0	9	−9	0

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