I would need to see some quantitative data on that.
I work with people all over the US and when i tell them i graduated from Santa Clara University, i get radio silence. No one every says “oh, the school with the great women’s soccer program?”
I usually have to prompt them with a Kurt Rambis, Steve Nash, Brandy Chastain or the ever-painful “They play in the same conference as Gonzaga” reference.
Fortunately working in the Bay Area SCU is well known as a very good school, particularly in Business, Engineering and Law.
Athletics on the other hand has been abysmal except for women’s soccer and the NAsh years. When I went to SCU we contended or won men’s basketball, baseball we were the best, and even men’s soccer won a championship shortly after I graduated.
The administration could have cared less, dropped football instead of going 1AA like St Marys, alienating many alumni at the time. Baseball withered and basketball has been average at best. The fact Jerry Smith could build up a women’s soccer program that has been so successful for many years is a true testament to his ability.
A tough draw tonite with UNC but any draw in the final 4 would be tough. Don’t count out the Broncos!!! This may be our year.
1-0 at halftime.
And yes, some people do know Santa Clara because of bend it like Beckham. It matters.
I think you’re delusional if you think the rest of the country knows Santa Clara (and via womens soccer success at that).
What Weave said… generally radio silence outside of the Bay Area.
Lol you’d be surprised
As a fellow midwesterner, I totally agree…
On to finals with a 3-1 win! Congrats to the ladies and Coach Smith!
Sierra gets his a desired matchup with #1 Florida St. on Monday at 2:30 PST.
And love that we are blowing through P5’s and blue bloods…
Great win!!! UNC had not given up a goal in an eternity and SCU scored 3. Excellent bounce back after UNC tied game at 1-1 with a goal in the next 30 seconds. After the third goal your could see the wind come out of Carolinas sails and SCU started to dominate ball control. Up til that point our defense was solid and the goals were scored when we countered UNC’s attack and their defenders could not keep up with our forwards.
UNC was #2 and now SCU takes on FSU ranked #1. It sure would be nice to get another title. Don’t count out the Broncos!!!
I think that this is almost unquestionably true at the moment, but the one bit of nuance I would add to it is the fact that both women’s sports and soccer are rapidly growing. When Jerry Smith started, there was almost no recognition or broad interest in women’s soccer. That stopped being the case after the '99 World Cup. And US fans all but took over France during the most recent World Cup.
Now men’s basketball and football have a 100+ year head start, so even a national championship in women’s soccer this year would probably be less notable than the men’s basketball team even just making the tournament. But I think it’s likely that this will not be true 10 years from now.
Big success now is how SCU ensures that it has a leg up on the competition (especially power conference rivals) as the sport grows. SCU women’s soccer will probably never be Gonzaga basketball, but I can definitely see a world fast approaching where the average casual sports fan would associate “Santa Clara” with “amazing soccer school” if they can keep this kind of success.
As one data point: I watched last night’s game with a friend-of-a-friend who was an MIT grad and a Wisconsin-Madison PhD candidate. Not totally sports agnostic but close, and had never watched a collegiate soccer game. She knew instantly that UNC was one of the most storied women’s soccer programs in the country. So this sort of thing can matter on the margin, and I think that margin is growing quickly.
When I used to tell people where I was headed off to college- it was a pretty evenly mixed reaction of:
None of these are particularly positive or negative responses, but i can say there’s definitely been more awareness of the school in the last 10 years (or maybe I’m just hyper aware) back home.
Anyways, getting off topic… hope we can pull it off Monday afternoon! Go Broncos!
Great win. I did tune into the game (also watched the end of the FSU and UVA matchup and and ESPN short on Vandy women’s bowling.).
However, I missed EVERY goal but the last one. Killed me. Stepped away to feed the dog…Broncos go up 1-0. Stepped away to start the grill… tie, then Broncos go up 2-1. Unbelievable.
Apparently that’s why in Europe no one ever leaves their seats during a match. LOL
Enjoy the Highlights of Santa Clara’s 3-1 win over North Carolina!!!
Coming down to Penalties
Awesome win…couldn’t watch all of it…too nervous. I’ve already shoved the knife into some of my Tampa friends ( who are actually very good people…just a little overbearing). Guess they’re over at Ybor at the Columbia, drowning in mojitos while wolfing down a pallet of those wonderful Cuban sandwiches. Maybe Mr Howard in all of his travels knows of this area. Tampa/St Pete cranks out a lot of really good athletes. Go Broncos…best thing in a long time, but probably short lived.
Kudos to the lady Broncos and Coach Smith! Great season and representing SCU well as they have for the past 30yrs.
Could only watch part of regulation but caught all of OT and PK’s…nerve racking but fun to watch. And cool to see so many Broncos in the stands including former players.
Watched the entire game. Gotta give SCU credit once they fell behind it looked like it would be tough since FSU had not given up any goals in the tournament but SCU hung in there and took advantage of a miscue to tie the game. In PK’s FSU had won the last two games on PK’s. SCU dominated the PK’s 4-1. They never gave up, persevered, and deserved to win.
It was nice seeing so many SCU fans in attendance, many former players but also a lot of what looked like to be regular fans, students?, family? But a lot of support. Way to go Broncos!!! Second NCAA title for women’s soccer. SOme young players so lets hope we can continue the run next year but we will enjoy it while we can.
Incredible late goal when it looked like we had nothing going for 70+ min.
Front page Espn, bleacher report, top 10 trending on Twitter, etc etc… but maybe “radio silence” on the actual radio.
4 (?) years after the Stevens soccer facility was built. Hopefully the new athletics center gets the momentum going to other sports!
Congrats on a wild season and run!
Amazing season, especially considering how tough the year was for the team and league in general. Coach Smith is a master tactician and the games are a pleasure to watch. Got outplayed at times in the last two, but took advantage of almost every opening. Our offensive firepower is awesome. Really great win and super stoked and proud to see the school’s third national championship overall. Was fun to see the support in the crowd and some of the soccer legends out in force.
Caught the last few minutes of regulation and OT and the shootout.
Crazy. Never would have expected FSU to make mistakes like that but they did and Santa Clara made no mistakes punishing them.
That’s football, and that’s how you become a champion.