UCLA, Virginia move up in women’s rankings

by ESNN

September 2, 2013

While North Carolina continued its winning ways, two teams are perhaps off to an even just as impressive start to the season.

north carolina women's college soccer player Caroline Lindquist

UNC's Caroline Lindquist

Moving up to No. 2 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Division I rankings is UCLA, after the Bruins went on the road to claim a pair of victories against Top 25 opposition. Friday night UCLA opened a weekend in Notre Dame with a 2-1 win over No. 18 Marquette on the back of a 61st minute strike by midfielder Sam Mewis. Sunday, in an extremely close matchup with No. 6 Notre Dame, freshman forward Darian Jenkins nabbed an 81st minute tally that stood up as the winner.

Down in Charlottesville, the University of Virginia sent notice to the rest of the country on Friday night, dismantling No. 9 Penn State to the tune of a 5-1 score line. After Maya Hayes opened up the scoring for the Nittany Lions, the Cavaliers nabbed five unanswered goals from Morgan Brian, Makenzy Doniak, Kate Norbo, Shasta Fisher and Brittany Ratcliffe. Virginia made sure it was a perfect weekend by following that up with a 3-0 defeat of Richmond on Sunday.

Playing at home against No. 12 Portland, No. 4 Stanford could only muster a 1-1 draw, thanks to a 67th minute equalizer by Haley Rosen and four saves from freshmen goalkeeper Jane Campbell.

Also continuing its hot start with two wins over in state foes is No. 5 Florida State. Midfielder Dagny Brynjarsdottir and a suffocating defense put the shackles on No. 10 Florida in a 3-0 win, with the junior from Iceland scoring two goals in the victory. For Sunday’s encore, the Seminoles needed overtime to pick up a 1-0 win against UCF, with defender Kirsten Crowley notching the game-winning goal in the 96th minute.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 Tar Heels kept things humming along at the top, coming from behind against New Mexico to win 2-1 on Friday, before easing past Kennesaw State 3-0, led by a goal and an assist from Kealia Ohai.

Rounding out the top 10 this week is Notre Dame, Baylor, BYU, Penn State and Florida.

Here’s a look at the full rankings.