Freshmen are still finding their way around their new campuses, but the NCAA soccer season is well underway. By the time Labor Day arrives next week, many teams will already be nearly a third of the way through their regular-season schedules.
So there is no time to waste. What were the headlines from the season's second week?
We're glad you asked.
Sunshine State meets Golden State
There were notable results elsewhere in college soccer -- Arkansas upset Duke, and North Carolina and Florida Atlantic traded goals in the final 70 seconds of regulation before the Tar Heels finally escaped with a double-overtime win. But no team invested more capital -- perhaps even literally, if you add up miles and minutes involved -- to end up almost exactly where it began than Florida after a 1-0 overtime loss at Stanford and a 4-3 overtime win at UCLA.
One win that could have been two wins. One loss that could have been two losses.
Two games that could have been stalemates.
For a team locked for years now in a cycle of being among the top national challengers without quite being the challenged, it has to be a familiar feeling.
At the same time, for all the heavy lifting senior Savannah Jordan did in scoring twice and putting in the cross that deflected off UCLA for an overtime own-goal winner Sunday, the response from a starting lineup that featured five sophomores and a freshman might prove worth revisiting come the postseason.
Now all that awaits in Gainesville is No. 1 Florida State on Friday night (while UCLA, which won at Texas A&M this past Friday, hosts Penn State and North Carolina this week).
Quick turnaround for Canadian Olympic medalists
The math proved simple enough when West Virginia and Clemson met Friday night: Two Canadian Olympians are greater than one Canadian Olympian.
A week removed from beating host Brazil for Olympic bronze in Sao Paulo, West Virginia's Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence were both in the starting lineup for the Mountaineers. Standing in their way was Clemson goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, an alternate on the Canadian team who traveled to the Olympic tournament. Sheridan ultimately had the most work to do, forced to make seven saves for the Tigers, but she couldn't do anything about the shot West Virginia's Amandine Pierre-Louis slotted home early in the second half.
Pierre-Louis, naturally, is Canadian (there are currently seven Canadians on the West Virginia roster, not all that surprising for a program that has long had a talent pipeline running north).
The ACC season, not to mention this week's rivalry game at South Carolina, affords Clemson plenty more opportunities to burnish its résumé. With two stars back, West Virginia needed this.
BYU's road show impresses
Win on the road now for the chance to play at home later. Stated or not, that's the objective this time of year for a lot of teams that play in good conferences but nevertheless aren't quite good enough, or at least deep enough, to put the polish on an NCAA tournament résumé.
And so a week that began poorly for BYU, a loser at home to Nebraska 1-0 on Monday, took a pleasant turn in the form of a 3-2 win at defending national champion Penn State on Friday on the strength of an Ashley Hatch hat trick.
BYU won at Tennessee early in the 2014 season and at LSU and Baylor a year before that. The Cougars have also made a recent habit of winning at Portland, still no easy feat for WCC teams. So these weren't wholly uncharted waters. Still, the bulk of BYU's best recent work came at home, where in past year the Cougars surpassed Portland as national attendance leaders.
And winning games at places like Penn State, especially after first taking and then giving away a two-goal lead, is a good way to earn games in Provo in November.
Georgetown's goal machine
What kind of week did Georgetown senior Grace Damaska have? She scored more goals than every other Big East team. Not just any other player in the league, mind you, but more than any of the other nine teams scored.
She started quickly in Thursday's win against Delaware, probably a good thing on a day when the weather report listed the heat index in the nation's capital within a few degrees of triple digits. Another two goals early in the second half have her a natural hat trick. She was back at it under similar conditions Sunday (the official scoring registered the conditions as "gross") against Colorado College. Her two goals put an end to any potential for a comeback from the visitors in a 4-1 win.
Damaska's scoring binge will be tested when Georgetown travels to Rutgers on Friday (the Hoyas managed just five shots in a loss against Stanford a week ago), but a five-goal week is heady stuff.
Alabama's rising Tide
Alabama scored its 14th goal of the 2015 season in an October loss to Missouri. The Crimson Tide's season came to a close a week later.
It is not yet September, let alone Labor Day, and the Tide have 14 goals in their first four games. The current run included a 4-0 win against Campbell on Friday and a 1-0 win at Chattanooga on Sunday. Junior Lacey Clarida scored the lone goal at Chattanooga and has scored at least once in each game. Sophomore Abbie Boswell, the MAC freshman of the year at Ball State a season ago, has at least one assist in each game.
As its schedule suggests, Alabama isn't exactly competing for NCAA tournament seeding at the moment (its opening-weekend wins came against Sam Houston State and Murray State). With games at South Florida and Florida Gulf Coast this week, there will soon be more useful evidence by which to judge SEC potential. But for second-year coach Wes Hart, wins and goals are the best way to turn heads in Tuscaloosa.
