The Women’s Soccer Club was formed for a second time in 1995 after the university adopted a varsity team in 1994. The rebuilding was a long process but the quality of soccer continued to thrive when in 1997 Penn State advanced to their first ever National Championship game. In 1998 Penn State returned to the National Final only to come up short for the second year running. In 1999 PSU advanced to the Elite 8 before falling short of their 3rd straight Final Four and in 2000, the team again left disappointed after a 1-0 loss to Ohio State in the semi-finals.

In the past, the team has tried several different formats regarding the numbers of players on the team. This past fall, there were 28 players (24 field players and 4 goalkeepers) and 2 practice players/managers. For 2001, the team plans to return to an earlier format with about 25 travel team members and 5 practice players. The team will be selected from a pool of 50-100 players every fall season. The team practices Monday-Thursday from 5-7pm and travels on the weekends for games. Last season, the team traveled to Virginia, New Jersey, and Ohio and Alabama. The team also hosted 9 home matches last year. This year our season has been shortened and therefore will only travel to Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.

Penn State is a member of the NIRSA (National Intramural Recreational Sports Association), which is the governing body for collegiate recreational sports programs. This organization also hosts the annual collegiate club soccer national championships. There are approximately 85-100 men’s college club teams and 60-70 women’s college club teams. PSU competes in Region 1, which compiles teams such as Delaware, Rutgers, Princeton, Salisbury State, Maryland, Villanova, Pennsylvania, Loyola, Connecticut, Boston College, and UMBC, UPenn, Cornell and TCNJ. Every season, one of these schools hosts the Region 1 Championships. This year Princeton is hosting the Region 1 tournament that will be held Oct 15-17.

Penn State is also a member of the ORSC (Ohio River Soccer Conference), which is the conference in which we compete. PSU won the conference championship in 1998 & 1999 and 2001. The teams in the ORSC are Ohio State, Xavier, West Virginia, Michigan State, Miami (OH), Bowling Green, Kent State, Kentucky, Ball State, and Ohio University, and U. of Michigan. We play a regular season and end of season conference tournament.

The NIRSA National Championships are held in November every season. Only the top 16 teams in the country qualify for the tournament. The top 2 teams from all 6 regions are invited along with 4 other at-large bids. The championships are held over 3 days. This season,