The Portland Pilots lost their best player, Megan Rapinoe, to a torn ACL halfway through the season. So they settled for a goal-of-the-year from big sister Rachel Rapinoe to knock the UT Lady Longhorns out of the NCAA tourney. Rapinoe nailed a 20-yard stunner just three minutes into the game – UT coach Chris Petrucelli later said it might have been the best goal ever scored on this field – and the Horns never could make it up. They outshot Portland, and outplayed them for most of the game, but couldn’t quite find the equalizer, and by the second half, they were chasing the game all over the field, and the Pilots got a late insurance goal to make the final margin 2-0.
But if you gotta lose, this is a likeable team to lose to. And the Pilots should certainly be comfortable in Austin; they’re 8-0 all-time against UT, and they won their first national championship here, when Austin hosted the Final Four in 2002.
BTW, how was this team – defending national champ, seventh in the nation in the final rankings – left unseeded and forced to go on the road for every game? Well, whatever. They’ve already beaten Brigham Young and Utah in Utah, and No. 1 seed Texas in Austin. This week they’re at UCLA, pre-season No. 1 pick for many people, myself included. Elsewhere, it’s unseeded Clemson at No. 2 Florida State, and two 1v2s: Penn State at Notre Dame and Texas A&M at North Carolina.
The NCAA men are underway as well; the lone Texas entrant, No. 3-ranked SMU, fell in the first round to UC-Santa Barbara.
This article appears in November 17 • 2006.