Only eight teams remain in the NCAA tournament. And, wouldnt you know it, each quarterfinal is between a team seeking its first College Cup appearance and a team seeking to return there.Heres what you missed from the second and third rounds.Stress tests for No. 1 seedsPlaying as a No. 1 seed on its home field, a week after piling up seven goals in a first-round romp, South Carolina led its second- and third-round games for a total of just over 38 minutes. Which means it didnt have that luxury for nearly 142 minutes. The Gamecocks didnt score a goal in the run of play, beating Colorado and fourth-seeded BYU by matching 1-0 scores on the strength of second-half penalty kicks.They endured. They defended. They survived. Barely.And that was the easiest weekend a No. 1 seed had in the NCAA tournament.It wasnt quite anarchy, but the second and third rounds were distinctly anti-establishment. After five consecutive seasons in which all No. 1 seeds reached the quarterfinals, a perfect 20-for-20, no favorite was safe this year. By the time it was over, only South Carolina and West Virginia remained -- and the Mountaineers only after sweating out a penalty shootout in Morgantown, West Virginia.When Utah upset third-seeded Florida State on a busy Friday of second-round games, it had a chance to be the story of the weekend. It was barely the story of the afternoon, eclipsed when Santa Clara stunned No. 1 Stanford in overtime that night. The Bay Area neighbors have played in four of the past eight NCAA tournaments, in addition to an annual regular-season game. And against the familiar foe, Stanford couldnt find a goal with any of its 31 shots. Barely a minute after Santa Clara goalkeeper Melissa Lowder made the last of 14 saves, Jenna Holtz scored the winner that eliminated a No. 1 seed in the second round for the first time since 2010.Florida, a surprise No. 1 seed when the bracket was announced, rallied from a goal down to beat Wisconsin in overtime in the second round, only to find itself down two goals and a player against No. 4 Auburn on Sunday. The Gators cut that deficit in half, but Kristen Dodsons beautiful chip sealed Auburns 3-1 win.Then there was West Virginia, which endured not just four overtime periods and a penalty shootout on the weekend but a snow-covered field for its third-round game against No. 4 UCLA (which surely enjoyed the conditions even less).Mountaineers forward Michaela Abam bailed her team out with an overtime winner against Ohio State in the second round, but it wasnt until Canadian Olympic and World Cup medalist Kadeisha Buchanan converted a penalty kick in the fifth and final round of the shootout against UCLA that the Mountaineers could plan for next week.In all, No. 1 seeds played seven games and scored just one more goal than they allowed. They led for barely 50 out of their nearly 700 total minutes on the field. Two survived. Two did not.And we arent likely to see another weekend quite like it for a long time.The biggest loss wasnt on the scoreboardNo matter your rooting interest, there is something sad about seeing seniors like BYUs Ashley Hatch, Floridas Savannah Jordan, Wisconsins Rose Lavelle and Virginias Alexis Shaffer walk off the field for the final time as collegians. It is also expected. It is part of the tournament.More painful for its unexpectedness was seeing Stanford junior All-American Andi Sullivan carried off the field with an apparent knee injury before the conclusion of Stanfords loss.On Monday, Stanford confirmed Sullivan had suffered a torn ACL in her left knee.The optics in the moment were universally sobering. Sullivans scream of pain as she fell was audible even on the web stream of the game. The nearest Santa Clara player immediately put her hands to her face. And though the injury occurred near the sideline, Sullivans full weight was completely supported between two people as she was carried off. UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell tweeted what most fans all too familiar with the plague of knee injuries in womens soccer would have thought upon seeing it.Sullivan -- who tweeted the message struck down but not destroyed a day after the game -- has a bright future ahead.But its a shame she has to spend the months before her senior season working back to this point instead of working to solidify a place with the United States womens national team that could find her in the lineup for the 2019 FIFA Womens World Cup.Those who forget history ...North Carolina and Santa Clara have 173 wins in the NCAA tournament between them. The other six programs represented in the quarterfinals have a combined 94 tournament wins.As strange as it is to write this about perhaps the most successful dynasty in college sports, North Carolina ended a quarterfinal drought with its wins this week over Kansas and No. 3 Clemson. Well, a drought by North Carolina standards. The Tar Heels didnt make it past the third round in either of the past two tournaments (even exiting in the second round a year ago). The NCAA tournament began in 1982. Pick a measure -- leap days, Olympics, solar eclipses -- and there have probably been more of them since 1982 than Elite Eights without the Tar Heels.The longer drought belonged to Santa Clara, in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004. That was also the last of 10 times the Broncos reached the College Cup, including a national championship in 2001. Should Santa Clara make it back home to San Jose this year, it will be the first school other than North Carolina to reach the College Cup in each of four decades.Like West Coast Conference rival Portland, Santa Clara has seen the tide of the sport turn against it -- from the micro of dubious treatment at the hands of the selection committee to the macro of more and more power conference schools putting more and more money into the sport. That the Broncos had to pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory and withstand 49 total shots over the weekends two games just to get here tells a story of its own for the program that produced Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne and Aly Wagner among its stars. (Not that the pipeline is dry with Julie Johnston and Sofia Huerta among notable active alums.)But there is institutional memory in longtime coach Jerry Smiths program, not to mention hands-on experience against what is annually one of the nations best schedules. For players like fifth-year seniors Brittany Ambrose and Julie Vass and senior Jordan Jesolva, the scorers against NC State, this is a chance to show soccer at Santa Clara can still be living history.Unfamiliar territory for Georgetown and AuburnJust in time for Thanksgiving, Georgetowns Rachel Corboz earned what most siblings hope to bring to the holiday table: bragging rights. Although by doing so, Corboz ensured she and the rest of her teammates wont be available for the full culinary indulgence Thursday. They have a quarterfinal against Santa Clara to play two days later.After wins over Rutgers and No. 3 Virginia this past weekend, duplicating the regular-season results most directly responsible for its No. 2 seed, Georgetown will play a quarterfinal for the second time in program history. And as the Hoyas seek their College Cup debut, that game will be played at home. Corboz is far from finished, but even getting to this point makes clear that she has a place in program history separate and distinct from older sister Daphne, with whom she played her first two seasons and who remains Georgetowns all-time leader in goals.The opening goal against Virginia came after Corboz yielded to the conditions on a day when the wind bowed corner flags and made it difficult to set the ball for free kicks. Her short corner started a sequence that ended in a Virginia own goal. But after Virginias Alissa Gorzak hit the post late, neither the Cavaliers nor Mother Nature could stop the goal that sealed matters, a free kick from 20 yards that Corboz powered through the wind for her 11th goal of the season. That after she recorded her 15th and 16th assists of the season in the win over Rutgers.There is something about Auburn earning its first quarterfinal trip at the expense of Florida, so long the SEC equivalent of an older sibling, that Corboz could appreciate. Especially since it meant beating the Gators twice this season in Gainesville, Florida. One of the best teams in the country since Labor Day, Auburn can also lay claim to the most impressive march to the fourth round. Against three quality opponents, Connecticut and Florida this past week, the Tigers piled up 11 goals through the first three rounds.What awaits in the quarterfinals?No. 4 Auburn at No. 2 USC: It took until now to mention USC, which survived a penalty shootout in the second round against Texas A&M and then beat Utah 1-0 in a Pac-12 rematch. It wasnt a dominant showing, but it was enough to not just survive but to stay at home for this game. That is a luxury even the USC national championship team of 2007 didnt have in the quarterfinals. Of concern for the Tigers is Dodsons status. She had to be helped from the field shortly after her goal and had her right shoulder tightly wrapped as the game concluded.No. 3 Duke at No. 1 West Virginia: Duke coach Robbie Church was blunt in assessing the teams failings in a 3-1 loss at home against West Virginia in September, a performance that in some ways set the tone for an inconsistent season. Yet while the Blue Devils werent immune to the drama this past week, waiting until late to put away Illinois State in the second round, the level of play has been strong throughout the first three rounds. The counterattack that worked so well last postseason might again be called on against a West Virginia attack that was much more impressive this past week than its close calls suggest.No. 2 North Carolina at No. 1 South Carolina: Both North Carolina game-winning goals this past week came from substitutes, Madison Schultz against Kansas and Dorian Bailey against Clemson. That should not be a surprise. Beginning with Schultzs winner in the regular-season finale, eight of North Carolinas 12 most recent goals have come from substitutes. No one uses a bench to greater effect than Anson Dorrance. Can South Carolina, perhaps through star Savannah McCaskill, break the high pressure before the waves of Tar Heels reserves get involved?Santa Clara at No. 2 Georgetown: Its not as if the Broncos will panic if they find themselves absorbing shots and ceding possession in search of another upset. Holiday-week travel and a chilly long-range forecast may be bigger concerns than that for the visitors from the Bay Area. But at some point, there has to be a correlation between goals and opportunities. And having allowed one goal in the past month, Georgetowns defense isnt giving up many of either.
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