In this week’s women’s soccer news, the 2025 NCAA College Cup matchups are set; the Portland Thorns are searching for a new head coach; Japan got an impressive win over Canada; and more!
High of the Week
The 2025 NCAA Women’s College Cup matchups are set. No. 3 Florida State against No. 2 TCU and then No. 1 Stanford against No. 2 Duke.
Florida State has scored at least three goals in all but one of its NCAA Tournament games this season. To punch their ticket to the College Cup, they defeated Ohio State 4-1. Jordynn Dudley led the Seminoles with a brace in that game to help secure the win.
TCU has had a really impressive season, having only lost three games on the season, but they needed a little last-minute action to make it to the next round. In the round of 16, they defeated North Carolina in penalty kicks, and then they knocked off one-seed Vanderbilt thanks to two late goals in the second half to move on.
Stanford has looked like the best team in the country for most of the season, and that has continued throughout tournament play. The ACC Champions have dominated in their four NCAA Tournament games; they’ve outscored their opponents 21-5, and three of those goals conceded came against Alabama. To advance to the College Cup, they defeated Michigan State 5-1.
Duke is yet to concede a single goal during the tournament. To advance, they defeated Washington 3-0. Despite being in the same conference as Stanford, this will be the two schools’ first meeting this season.
Low of the Week
This week, the Portland Thorns announced that they had parted ways with head coach Rob Gale, and they will now begin a search for a permanent head coach. For the time being, assistant coach Sarah Lowdon will serve as the interim head coach. Gale joined the Thorns in 2023 as an assistant coach and became the head coach just a season later in 2024. As a head coach, Gale led Portland to back-to-back playoff appearances and finished the 2025 season with a trip to the semifinals and an 11-7-8 record. That makes four NWSL head coaching jobs that are currently vacant: Portland Thorns, Bay FC, Kansas City Current, and the North Carolina Courage.
News of the Week
The NWSL Championship match had 1.55 million viewers, making it the most-watched NWSL match to date. It’s an exciting statistic for the league and the sport of women’s soccer. The league also announced that it was the most attended postseason with 114,459 fans in attendance across the seven total games.
Goal of the Week
TCU was down 1-0 to Vanderbilt with just four minutes left to go when they earned a free kick. The ball was put into the box, and the Vandy goalkeeper came out to punch it, but the deflection fell right to the feet of Emma Yolinsky, who hit a perfect volley to put the Horned Frogs on the board.
Transfer of the Week
Normally, this section is to look at player transfers, but there was a big head coaching shake-up in college soccer this week. Former UCLA head coach Margueritte Bates has taken the job at Texas. Bates had a tremendously successful short stint with UCLA as a head coach. She was the coach of the Bruins for four years, and in that time, she won the NCAA National Championship in 2022 during her first season. She also helped lead them to two conference championships. It’s a massive move for Texas to be able to get Bates as the head coach, and she’ll likely have this team competing very well when they take the field for her in 2026.
Win of the Week
Japan got an impressive friendly win over Canada in the first of their two meetings this international break. Japan got the 3-0 win with goals from Momoko Tanikawa, Mina Tanaka, and Aoba Fujino. Two of the three goals came in the second half. It’s the fourth straight loss for Canada. Japan and Canada will face off again on Tuesday.
Team of the Week
The University of Washington women’s soccer team has been through a lot in recent weeks. They won their conference championship just days after finding out that their teammate Mia Hamant lost her battle to kidney cancer. From that, they earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, and they went on an inspiring Cinderella run. They got the upset win over 4 seed Arkansas to advance to the Sweet 16, and then they knocked off 1 seed and host Virginia in penalty kicks to advance to the Elite Eight for just the third time in school history and first since 2010. Their journey ultimately came to an end when they lost to Duke in the Elite Eight, but seeing this team play was magical during the postseason.
Shout out to the teams that came before us! 💜🧡
WE’RE BACK. ✅ Elite 8️⃣
✅ Team 1️⃣4️⃣ (2004)
✅ Team 2️⃣0️⃣ (2010)
✅ Team 3️⃣5️⃣ (2025)Friday night, we’ll give our best to make history—chasing our first College Cup. 💪 ☔️🐺 pic.twitter.com/pflpcXb5ki
— Nicole Van Dyke (@CoachVanDykeUW) November 25, 2025
Player of the Week
England got a massive 8-0 win over China at Wembley Stadium. Their eight goals scored are the most scored in a single game by the English Women’s National Team at the stadium. Georgia Stanway scored a hat-trick in that game to help lead the Lionesses to victory. She became just the third player from the England Women’s National Team to score a hat-trick at the stadium.
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