West Virginia and Penn State battled to a 1-1 draw in last year's top five matchup.
September is here, which means college soccer is finally in its full rhythm. On Thursday night, there was a huge upset at Klöckner Stadium, where No. 3 Virginia fell to Wisconsin 1-0. Although the Cavaliers held the shot advantage, Wisconsin’s Dani Rhodes stepped up big for her side to score the game winner in the 69th minute. Not a bad way to head into September play for the Badgers, who fell to another top-ranked team, No. 2 Stanford, by five goals at the start of the season.
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This weekend is packed with other possible upsets, with 255 games played from Friday through Sunday. Here are the two biggest set for Saturday and Sunday:Saturday: No. 2 Penn State at No. 6 West Virginia
This will be the 16th meeting between the two sides, with the Nittany Lions holding a 7-6-2 lifetime advantage. Last year, the Nittany Lions and Mountaineers battled to a 1-1 score to open up the 2016 season.
Both Penn State and WVU return several standout letter winners from 2016. For the Mountaineers, All-American forward Michaela Abam is back and already a scoring machine. Abam ranks in the program's top 10 all-time in goals (32) and points (77). For the Nittany Lions, junior Marissa Sheva has had two multiple goal outings, which earned her TopDrawerSoccer’s Team of the Week honors this past week.
Sunday: No. 2 Florida vs. Portland
CHOMP! With 74% of the votes, No. 2 Florida is your #NCAASoccer Women's Team of the Week! pic.twitter.com/V3smiZjS3r
— NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) August 31, 2017
Sunday is jam-packed with intriguing matchups, led by the No. 2 Gators traveling to Seattle to take on the Pilots and looking to avoid a winless weekend. North Carolina will battle it out against North Carolina-Wilmington, Stanford will look to keep cruising against Navy, UCLA will take on Weber State, Boston College will face in-city foe Northeastern and Virginia will look to turn things around against Richmond.
UCLA tops the coaches poll at 5-0-0 while Florida dropped to 4-1-0 with a loss to Washington on Friday. Penn State is just below at 3-0-0. This weekend will be an interesting test to see if any teams can come out undefeated. Both UCLA and Florida have two matches to either make or break their top position. The Gators are cruising after defeating top-ranked Stanford 3-2 last Friday.
This story was originally published on Excelle Sports. Visit ExcelleSports.com for more coverage of women's sports at all levels.
