After a long season, a tussle at the ECNL Playoffs in Aurora, Colorado, the stage is set for the ECNL National Finals.

Seventy teams in all traveled to Richmond, Virginia, as one squad from each age group (U14 through U17) will end the five-day week as ECNL Nationals Champions.

Here are some of the teams to watch:

U14

The format is a bit different for this age group, as unlike the other three, the U14s didn’t make the trip to Colorado for the National Playoffs. Instead, the top 16 teams will be in Richmond, contesting for national honors.

As a result, it’s a wide-open field with a whole heap of talent, including three teams that haven’t taken a loss all season: PDA, Solar Chelsea and De Anza Force. PDA U14s are one of three that the New Jersey club sent down to Richmond, and they’ll certainly be a handful – Alexa Ferreira is one of many talented and promising players who will look to excel in Richmond.

Solar should be no slouches themselves, having scored 67 goals while conceded just eight during the regular season. Emilie Harvey, Mary Moore, Keely Morrow, April Pate, Taryn Torres and Madison Williams all have showed a scoring touch this season and represent a big challenge for opponents to lock down.

Speaking of scoring goals, the aforementioned De Anza squad scored 100 goals in 22 games during the regular season. Forward Kayla Fong chipped in a quarter of that with 25, while teammate Luca Deza supplied a cool 12 tallies and 25 helpers during the season. It’s going to take a monumental effort to slow down this offense.

Other teams heading to Richmond include FC Virginia, Carmel United, Eclipse Select SC, Colorado Storm, Colorado Rush and FC Stars of Massachusetts.

 

U15

Eight teams that survived Aurora will all be angling to finish Monday as national champions. Real Colorado hasn’t lost a game all season in the Mountain West Conference, and with the firepower of Tatum Barton, Jayne Lydiatt and Mallory Pugh is certain to cause problems in Virginia.

A squad that has made it this far on the strength of its defense is FC Bucks. Thirteen shutouts in 20 league matches this season is an impressive ratio – goalkeeper Erin Seppi will look to team up with defensive cogs Kayla Ryan, Rachel Millstein, Shannon Burns and the rest of the squad in the hopes of continuing that trend into this weekend.

There’s a distinct Texas trend in this age group, with three of the eight teams hailing from the Texas Conference, with conference-toppers Dallas Sting looking to maintain its dominance over FC Dallas and the Dallas Texans on the national stage.

 

U16

Four of the eight remaining teams in this age group hail from the same state: California. So there will be some familiarity between the final foes, as So Cal Blues, West Coast FC, Real So Cal and Slammers FC vie for the championship. All four squads share the SoCal Conference, adding an extra edge if they line up against each other out in Richmond.

Looking to secure the perch outside of California is a talented PDA side, led by U.S. youth international Taylor Racioppi and back stopped by the sure-handed netminder Penelope Edmonds. Elizabeth Kinkler, Gianna Bustamante and Bryce Watts also provide talented compliments.

Two of the remaining entrants in the Champions League come from Texas, with Albion Hurricanes and Dallas Sting. AHFC’s top scorer Christiana Sullivan bagged 21 goals on the year and she’ll be out to do more damage, while the Sting have a trio of double-digit goal scorers in Mimi Asom, Natalie McDonough and Kaycie Tillman to call upon.

Rounding out the teams is Sereno Soccer Club, second place finishers in the Mountain West Conference that enters the National Finals on an extremely impressive 13-game winning streak that dates back to April.

 

U17

Perhaps the toughest week lies ahead at this age group, as all eight teams here are quite capable of winning it all.

A dynamic group from Maryland, Freestate Soccer Alliance is solid from back to front, buoyed by standouts like Casey Martinez and Megan Hinz in goal. If Margaret Purce – in camp with the U20s – makes the trip to Richmond it will boost their chances considerably.

After all, it is a talented field. Sporting Blue Valley has tremendous firepower, with U.S. U17 WNT hopeful Dorian Bailey likely to play a pivotal role. Then of course, there’s no forgetting a solid and deep PDA squad with Rachel Corboz pulling strings in the midfield that hasn’t lost a single game in the 2012-13 season, and a VSI West Florida Flames squad that seems to get a bit overlooked.

The two California sides, Slammers FC and San Diego Surf possess potent attackers, pairing up with solid defenses, while Lonestar and Dallas Sting continue the ever-present Texas pipeline.