See you in Phoenix!

This year was overwhelmingly satisfying considering what happened in 2013.  This tournament brought back what we missed last year, great games with great students from great schools that make the tournament special.  It brought back the early morning and late nights (with late blogging) with great soccer during the 3 days. It was great to work with so many great people from our staff at NIRSA, to our colleagues across the nation who take time to make this tournament fun, to the staff in Memphis and to working with you by putting on this great tournament that I love to come back to year-after-year.

I enjoyed being your blogger again. I also was a guest field marshal and guest tweeter throughout the 3 days.  We hope you enjoyed what we had here with the blog and what we brought to Twitter with @NIRSAChamp and #NIRSASoccer.  I hope it adds to the tournament experience.  We'll see how we can improve the blog with Twitter next year.  If you have suggestions, please email me at mario.rios@utsa.edu.  We will see what we can do. We hope you follow us again in the future.

2015 brings us back to Phoenix.  We hope to have a great time there as we've had other times in the past and as we've had here in Memphis this year.

Be safe in your travels and I hope to see everyone again next year in Phoenix!

Goodbye and Good Luck!

Memphis Painted in Scarlet Tonight!

Two years ago Memphis was painted green with Michigan State winning both the men's and women's national championships.

This time the town is painted in Scarlet and Gray.  Ohio State men and women had the toughness and overcame adversity along the way to win their titles and are deserved to be crowned as national champions together.

Many may dislike the emphasis of THE in THE Ohio State University but in the club soccer world, you have to call THE Ohio State University...THE national champions!

Men's Championship Recap

Do you want to know about toughness?  That defined Ohio State.  They had tough games against UTEP and Virginia in their pool play games.  They had equally tough games in bracket play with wins over Florida and Virginia Tech.  The Texas A&M was tough for a half, especially after conceding an equalizer at the last kick of the 1st half. They seemed to be fighting everyone then (figuratively, including me).  But that toughness came through in the 2nd half as they cruised to a victory in that semifinal.  The final against San Diego State was epic and back-and-forth throughout.  They battled from 3 yellow cards in the first half, remained tough and forced the game to extra time.  In that extra time, a beautiful cross was put home to end it in the 92nd minute and gave them the national championship

They were led by Sam Nance as he won Most Outstanding Goalkeeper in the Men's Championship Division and by Tournament Most Valuable Player Alex Bujenovic who scored the dramatic championship winner in the 92nd minute to win the championship.  He overcame an early yellow in the first half, played with mental and physical toughness to stay in the game and be around in the 92nd minute to cash in the cross that sealed the title.

They are joined on the All-Tournament Team by:

Gregory Highley, Ohio State

Tim Grozier, Ohio State

TJ Schuster, Ohio State

Kody Duff, San Diego State

Ruben Vazquez, San Diego State

Kainoa Ownes, San Diego State

Greg Norris, San Diego State

Andrew Phinney, Michigan State

Jordan Brandel, Michigan State

Connor Hirt, Texas A&M

Congratulations to all of the players and to THE Ohio State University on winning the Men's National Championship!

Women's Championship Recap

Do you want to know about overcoming adversity?  Ohio State is your answer.  They started the tournament by losing to UCSB.  Not a bad team to lose to considering they had been to the last 6 championship games winning 5.  But they had to then rise to beat Penn State, UC Davis and Illinois on the way.  They had a tough defensive struggle against Texas but won that game at extra time.  Then they faced a team they lost to twice from their region: Miami University, the team that ended UCSB's run of 6 straight championship game appearances.  But did they run away from that challenge? No.  They faced it head on and won in convincing fashion in the title game where it mattered most.

They were led by Katie Woodling as she won Most Outstanding Goalkeeper in the Women's Championship Division and by Tournament Most Valuable Player Ellen Haas who scored the 2 goals in the final to seal their national championship.

They are joined on the All-Tournament Team by:

Tatum Marucci, Ohio State

Maria Riley, Ohio State

Emily Makowski, Ohio State

Madeline Sandhu, Ohio State

Taylor Wells, Miami University

Kathryn Altice, Miami University

Amanda Filian,Miami University

Mariela Cisneros, UCSB

Alexandra Childs, Texas

Congratulations to all of the players and to THE Ohio State University on winning the Women's National Championship!

Men's Open Recap

Do you want to know about efficiency?  California is your team.They gave up 1 goal in the entire tournament...and that was in the final against a team from their own pool, Central Florida.  California needed  a wild card to get in.  They won the tournament with only 5 goals scored in their 6 games.  They took care of business and got the job done.  They won the quarterfinal and semifinal in PKs.  They had 3 games that ended in 0-0 scores.  But in a tournament, you need resilience to advance. Cal had it and were very efficient in doing so.

They were led by Aziz Yehia as he won Most Outstanding Goalkeeper in the Men's Open Division and by Tournament Most Valuable Player Amir Guedoir.

They are joined on the All-Tournament Team by:

Arthur Rietdyk, California

Matthew Anderson, California

Brandon Braumuller, Central Florida

Matthew Gaskins, Central Florida

Andres Perotti, Central Florida

Julian Ruzzier-Gaul, California-Davis

Maximilien Bergman, California-Davis

Andrew Wohl, Oregon

Joe Jackson, Oregon

Yassine Hamdouni Alami, UCLA

Congratulations to all of the players and to the University of California-Berkeley on winning the Men's Open Division Championship!

Women's Open Recap

Do you want to know about domination?  Look at the Michigan women.  They played very well in the tournament.  Scoring 16 goals for and a tremendously impressive goals against of ZERO!

They were led by Michele Freed as she won Most Outstanding Goalkeeper in the Women's Open Division and by Tournament Most Valuable Player Beth Boyer.

They are joined on the All-Tournament Team by:

Adrienne Watts, Michigan

Becky Schuba, Michigan

Caitlyn Rize, Michigan

Paige Smith, Michigan

Sam Gordon, UCLA

Erica Slowik, UCLA

Maryann Laurias, UCLA

Ariel Hyderkhan, Virginia Tech

Nicolette Young, Virginia Tech

Jackie Gawne, Fordham

All showed great tenacity on joining the All-Tournament team this year.

Congratulations to all of the players and to the University of Michigan on winning the Women's Open Division Championship!

Consolation Results

The Colorado School of Mines on the men's side and Florida on the women's side concluded their tournament with 3 straight wins after possibly being disappointed with the way things turned out in their quest for a national championship.  

Their performance here may springboard them in the off-season to prepare for another run at the national championship in 2015.

Congratulations on the achievement!

More info late tonight

We had a great time in Memphis this year. We are now heading back to our hotel. There will be a late night blog posting of all the results . We will see you then.

More info to come

Ohio State pulls off the double!

More info to come late tonight.

Ohio State Wins National Championship in Extra Time!!!!

Alex Bujenovic with the championship winner in the 92nd minute wins it for Ohio State!!!

Ohio State 1 San Diego State 0

Men's National Championship Game in Extra Time!

San Diego State 0 Ohio State 0

Going to Extra Time!

San Diego State 0 Ohio State 0

Going to Extra Time!

Men's National Championship Game 2nd Half Underway

San Diego State 0 Ohio State 0

Remember to Follow us...

The Blog will update goals and halftime/final score.

Please follow Twitter: @NIRSAChamp using the hashtag #NIRSASoccer

Halftime

San Diego State 0 Ohio State 0

Men's National Championship Game

Men's National Championship Game Underway!

San Diego State v. Ohio State

Ohio State Double?

Michigan State won the double in Memphis 2 years ago.

Can Ohio State do the same this year?

Will San Diego State capture a national title?

Men's National Championship Game Up Next

San Diego State v. Ohio State

Ohio State wins the Women's National Championship!

Ohio State 2 Miami U 0

Ellen Haas with goals in the 34th and 63rd minutes seal the championship for Ohio State!

GOAL Ohio State!!

Ellen Haas scores in the 63rd minute for her second of the game!

Ohio State 2 Miami U 0

2nd Half Underway Women's National Championship

Ohio State 1 Miami U 0

Ellen Haas 34' Ohio State

Halftime

Women's National Championship

Ohio State 1 Miami U 0

GOAL Ohio State!

Ellen Haas scores in the 34th minute

Ohio State 1 Miami U 0

Women's National Championship Game Underway!

Miami (OH) v. Ohio State

The Blog will update goals and halftime/final score.

Please follow Twitter: @NIRSAChamp using the hashtag #NIRSASoccer

Women's National Championship Up Next

Miami (OH) v. Ohio State

The Blog will update goals and halftime/final score.

Please follow Twitter: @NIRSAChamp using the hashtag #NIRSASoccer

Colorado School of Mines wins Men's Consolation Final

Colorado School of Mines 1 Delaware 1

Colorado School of Mines wins 4-2 in PKs

Colorado School of Mines wins the Men's Consolation Final

Michigan wins Women's Open Championship

Michigan 2 UCLA 0

Michigan wins the Women's Open Championship!

California wins Men's Open Championship

California 2 Central Florida 1

California wins Men's Open Championship

Florida wins Women's Consolation Bracket

Florida 1 Penn Sate 0

Florida wins the women's consolation bracket.

Blogger setting up to announce

For those who remember, the blogger is also the PA announcer for the championship games. I am setting up and will not be at the open or consolation final games.

I am receiving radio reports and will post at the conclusion of the open and consolation games when I can.

They will be posted on Twitter first. Follow us at @NIRSAChamp and follow the conversation using the hashtag #NIRSASoccer

Women's national championship game set

Ohio State versus Miami (OH)

3 PM central today

Women's Championship semifinal results

Ohio State 1 Texas 0 at extra time

Miami (OH) 0 UCSB 0 (Miami (OH) advances 4–3 in PKs)

Men's national championship game set

Ohio State versus San Diego State

Today at 5 PM central.

Men's championship semifinals results

Ohio State 4 Texas A&M 2

San Diego State 1 Michigan State 0

Follow Twitter

Please follow Twitter for live updates of the championship semifinals.

@NIRSAChamp

#NIRSASoccer

Men's championship semifinals already underway

Ohio State versus Texas A&M

Michigan State versus San Diego State

Women's championship semifinals already underway

Texas versus Ohio State

UCSB versus Miami U

Men's open final set

California versus central Florida

1 PM today.

Men's open semifinal results

California 0 UC Davis 0 (California advances on PKs 4-3)

Central Florida 3 Oregon 0

Women's open final set

Michigan versus UCLA

1 PM today.

Women's open semifinal results

Michigan 3 Fordham 0

UCLA 2 Virginia Tech 1 aet

Men's consolation final set

Delaware versus Colorado School of Mines

1 PM today.

Men's consolation semifinal results

Delaware 5 Rice 2

Colorado School of Mines 3 UTEP 0

Women's consolation final set

Florida versus Penn State

1 PM today.

Women's consolation semifinal results

Florida 3 USC 1

Penn State 0 Florida State 0 (Penn State advances on PKs 4-2)

Follow the Twitter

Follow us for updates on the Open Semifinals

@NIRSAChamp

Join the conversation: #NIRSASoccer

8am Games

Men's Open Semifinals

UC Davis v. California

Central Florida v. Oregon

Women's Open Semifinals

Michigan v. Fordham

Virginia Tech v. UCLA

Men's Consolation Semifinals

Rice v. Delaware

Colorado of Mines v. UTEP

Women's Consolation Semifnals

USC v. Florida

Florida State v. Penn State

Saturday! Saturday!...Saturday!

Each day has gotten better than the last.

Day1: Fell out of bed waking up...cold start

Day 2: Cold Start...wet start...didn't fall out of bed

Day 3: NOT Cold Start...it's not raining...and didn't fall out of bed!

It is 54 degrees and the sun is out!

8am games are coming up next!

Championship Saturday

Looking forward to Championship Saturday.

Men's Open is down to UC Davis, Cal, UCF and Oregon.  UC Davis is the only undefeated and untied.  Can they continue their march to the open crown? Or did the power of the open division reside in Pool C with Cal and Central Florida?  Will the Quack Attack from Oregon fly through for the open championship?

Women's Open has 2 undefeated and untied teams, Michigan and Virginia Tech.  Will they play for the title?  Will Fordham join Va Tech for a Pool C rematch in the final?  Will UCLA "Bruin" everyone's march and win the open title?

Women's Championship will crown a new national champion thanks to Texas.  They are still in it.  Will they have enough to defeat a strong Ohio St. team?  UCSB will try to reclaim their crown they lost in 2012.  But Miami U also looked good throughout the weekend.  Who will win?

Men's Championship will feature some great match ups.  Michigan State still has a chance to remain champions.  After a draw to begin the tournament, San Diego State is starting to hit a stride.  Will their play be enough to knock the crown off the heads of the 2012 champions?  Texas A&M claimed some revenge over the team they lost to at their regional tournament.  Will that spark them to a victory over an undefeated and untied Ohio State squad?

Champions will be crowned tomorrow but they must first win their semifinal match ups on Saturday morning.

Join us tomorrow!  Good night!

Women's Open Semifinals Set

Michigan v. Fordham

Virginia Tech v. UCLA

Both games are at 8 AM on Saturday.