The2018 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 25thNIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized byNIRSA. It took place at Foley Tourism Complex, inFoley, Alabama from Thursday, November 29 to Saturday, December 1, 2018.^[1][2]

Weather cancelled the initial tournament prematurely, however a continuation was held for three of the four divisions, with the only division to not have a continuation, the men's open division, naming both finalists as champions.

Both reigning champions in the men's and women's championship divisions were eliminated before the semifinals. In the men's championship division, the winningest team,BYU, would see their earliest ever exit from the tournament with an 2–1 loss in the quarterfinals to Florida while in the women's championship division, the reigning back-to-back champion, UC-Santa Barbara, were eliminated in the round of 16 by the2015 national champions Michigan State followingpenalties. The women's championship division was also left with only one team that had previously claimed a title: Ohio State who won in2014.^[3][4]

Inclement weather cancelled all games Saturday after the 10:00am games, meaning the semi-final matches in the championship divisions and the finals of the open divisions were unable to be played. Attempting to avoid a repeat of the2013 tournament where no champions were crowned, a unique continuation was put into place for each division based on the remaining teams.^[5][3]

The 4 remaining men's teams were North Carolina, Florida, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State. A continuation was held January 26, 2019 at the UNC-Charlotte Rec Fields inCharlotte, NC. Games consisted of 45 minute halves with a 10-minute halftime.

The first semifinal saw North Carolina faceRegion II tournament champion Virginia Tech in a rematch from the aforementioned2018 Region II tournament's group stage that ended in a 1–1 draw. The only goals of the game were 2 North Carolina goals scored in the first half, seeing North Carolina in the finals for the second time in 4 years. The second semifinal saw Ohio State face Florida. A first half goal from eventual MVP Tyler Garrison of Florida was the only goal of the game and saw Florida advancing to the finals to face regional opponent North Carolina. Due to the unique circumstances of the tournament, the men's division decided to have a third place match, which had never occurred in the previous 24 iterations of the tournament in any division. Ohio State would beat Virginia Tech 3–1 to claim 3rd place.^[6]

After 90 minutes, the final between 2015 national champion North Carolina and regional foe Florida was tied 0–0, meaning a 15-minutesudden-goal overtime was to be conducted. Eventual MVP Tyler Garrison of Florida scored a free-kick in this overtime period to give Florida their first national title. This wasRegion II's third national title in four years despite not winning any of the previous 21 iterations.^[7]

The 4 remaining teams were UC-Davis, Illinois, Clemson, and Ohio State. The continuation was held February 23 & 24, 2019 at the Natchez Trace Turf Field atVanderbilt University's Rec Fields inNashville, TN. Initially, the tournament was supposed to be outside and end all in one day, but was again postponed due to rain. The semifinals were rescheduled to 8:30pm and 10:30pm indoors on Vanderbilt's Student Rec Center turf field with the finals being at 7:30amCST the following day, February 24, on the grass that they initially planned on using for all the games. Games were 40 minutes with a 10-minute halftime.

The first semifinal saw Ohio State face Clemson. Ohio State scored first in the 20th minute, a lead they held until the 51st minute when Clemson tied the game at 1–1. Ohio State countered with 3 goals in 7 minutes, beginning only 2 minutes after Clemson scored, and they would go on to win 4–1. The second semifinal saw UC-Davis face Illinois. UC-Davis scored 19 minutes into the game and held that lead until the final 6 minutes of regulation when Illinois tied the game at 1–1. The game would remain tied at the end of regulation and go to a 15-minute sudden-victory overtime. UC-Davis' Cayla Stillman scored to send UC-Davis to their first national championship finals. The game ended at 12:46am with the finals being at 7:30am.

The final between Ohio State and UC-Davis was scoreless at halftime, but 2 second half goals led to a 2–0 Ohio State victory, making them the only national champion to not win their first title this season.^[8]

The 2 remaining teams prior to the cancellation were2003 championship "finalists" Utah Valley State and UCLA. Prior to this, Utah Valley State would win their opener 2–0 over2007 open runners-up Kansas but would drop their second to Minnesota 3–0. Facing potential elimination, Utah Valley State did all they could defeating High Point 14–3 but would still finish second in their group. Utah Valley State would tie with Cornell for the final wildcard spot on the points and goal difference tiebreaker, both with 6 and +4 respectively, but the 14 goals in the final were enough to claim the wildcard bid on the goals for tiebreaker. Meanwhile, UCLA would win all three group games, first 5–0 against Carnegie Mellon, then 4–0 over Xavier, and finally 2–0 over Iowa State.

In the knockout round, Utah Valley State would defeat Miami (FL) 4–0 in the quarterfinals then three time open champions JMU 2–1 in the semifinals while UCLA would defeat UConn 2–0 in the quarterfinals and Minnesota 1–0 in the semifinals, meaning they still were yet to concede after 5 games. However, the rain cancelled the tournament before the championship could be played, and even though the teams are in the same region, the 675 mile distance between universities was too much and they were unable to get a continuation scheduled and elected to share the title as joint champions making this only the second time joint champions were declared and the first time since2004 with the four co-champions in the women's championship division. Notably, Utah Valley State's Chris Reyes would be named tournament MVP.^[9]

The 2 remaining teams were2006 champions San Diego State and finals debutants, University of Southern California (USC). In the group stage, San Diego State would win all three games 2–0, first against Georgia Tech, then against Maryland, and finally against Colorado School of the Mines. Meanwhile, USC would first defeat Kennesaw State 7–0, then would defeat Colorado Springs 3–0, but a 1–1 draw against Boston College would see them finish second in their group but would be enough to claim a wildcard spot.

In the knockout round, San Diego State would defeat Boston College 2–1 in the quarterfinals then JMU 2–0 in the semifinals while USC would defeat Oregon 2–1 then would defeat intra-city rivals UCLA 2–0 prior to the rain cancellation.

Fortunately, only 120 miles separated these schools, making the continuation fairly convenient. The continuation was held February 23, 2019 atUC-Irvine's Rec Fields inIrvine, CA. In the finals, San Diego State scored the first 3 goals, including one from eventual MVP Ellen Smolarski, in a 3–1 victory over USC for their first open national title.

The competition consisted of 96 teams: 48 men's teams and 48 women's teams. Each of these divisions were further divided into two 24-team divisions: the championship and open. The championship division divided teams into eight groups of three while the open division divided teams into six groups of four, both engaging in around-robin tournament that determined teams able to advance to a knockout stage. Pool play games were two 40-minute halves, separated by a seven-minute halftime and utilized thethree points for a win system. In the championship division, the two highest ranked teams from each group advanced to their knockout stage, with the third placed team advancing to a consolation bracket. In the open division, the top team from each group as well as the two best second placed teams advanced to their knockout stage.

Knockout stage games also consisted of two 40-minute halves. The round of 16 and quarterfinals were separated by a seven-minute halftime while the semifinals and finals had a ten-minute halftime. Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner. If a knockout-stage game was tied at the end of regulation, overtime would begin. Overtime consisted of one, 15-minute,golden-goal period. If still tied after overtime,kicks from the mark would determine the winner.^[10]

Each of the six regions received three automatic bids for both the men's and women's championship that they award to its members. The final six bids are considered "at-large", and are given out by NIRSA to teams, typically based on the regional tournament results andRPI.^[11]

The 48 remaining teams participating in the open division were selected via a lottery draw that aired onYouTube on October 5, 2018, at 9amPST. Any team with membership in a NIRSA-affiliated league or with a minimum of four games played prior to the tournament were able to enter their name into the lottery. If a selected team qualified for the championship division, an alternate would take their spot. 62 men's teams and 67 women's were selected.^[12][13]

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