2019 NCAA Division I women's soccer season


The 2019 NCAA Division I women's soccer season was the 38th season of NCAA championship women's college soccer.

Preseason

Coaching changes

New stadiums opening

New programs

The Merrimack Warriors began the transition from Division II to Division I and joined the Northeast Conference.
Long Island University announced in October 2018 that its two then-current athletic programs—the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the Division II LIU Post Pioneers—would merge into a single Division I athletic program under the LIU name after the 2018–19 school year. The unified program, which maintains LIU Brooklyn's Division I and Northeast Conference memberships, announced its new nickname of Sharks on May 15, 2019. With both campuses sponsoring women's soccer, the two teams became a single LIU team based at the Post campus in Nassau County, New York in the 2019 season.
Three schools that sponsor women's soccer will begin transitions from Division II in the 2020–21 school year. Bellarmine will join the ASUN Conference, Dixie State will join the Western Athletic Conference, and UC San Diego will join the Big West Conference.

Rebranded programs

In addition to LIU, one other Division I women's soccer program assumed a new athletic identity during the 2018–19 offseason. On July 1, 2019, the University of Missouri–Kansas City announced that its athletic program, previously known as the UMKC Kangaroos, would henceforth be known as the Kansas City Roos, with "Roos" having long been used as a short form of the historic "Kangaroos" nickname.

Conference realignment

This was also the final season for four programs in their current conferences. The Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners and Kansas City Roos will both leave the Western Athletic Conference in July 2020, with the Roadrunners joining the Big West Conference and the Roos returning to their former conference home of the Summit League. At the same time, the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons will leave the Summit League for the Horizon League, and the UConn Huskies will leave the American Athletic Conference to join several of their former conference mates in the Big East Conference.

Season outlook

Preseason polls

Regular season

Major upsets

In this list, a "major upset" is defined as a game won by a team ranked 10 or more spots lower or an unranked team that defeats a team ranked #15 or higher.
All rankings are from the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
DateWinnerScoreLoser
August 25No. 21 NC State3–1No. 7 Georgetown
August 29Rutgers1–0No. 11 Tennessee
September 5Santa Clara2–0No. 2 UCLA
September 6Iowa1–0No. 14 NC State
September 6DePaul1–0No. 11 Kansas
September 12Oklahoma State2–1No. 8 Penn State
September 13Michigan2–1No. 13 Washington State
September 15Arkansas2–0No. 1 North Carolina
September 15Louisville1–0No. 9 Vanderbilt
September 15UC Santa Barbara1–0No. 2 Stanford
September 22Wisconsin2–1No. 13 Rutgers
September 27California2–1No. 7 UCLA
September 29Florida1–0No. 15 Vanderbilt
October 6Florida3–1No. 12 Texas A&M
October 10No. 25 Arizona1–0No. 15 Washington State
October 18California3–0No. 4 USC
October 18TCU2–1No. 13 Texas Tech
October 24DePaul1–0 No. 14 Georgetown
October 24Miami 3–2 No. 15 Clemson
October 28Washington2–0No. 7 USC
November 3Purdue1–0No. 7 Wisconsin
November 3NC State2–1 No. 14 Louisville
November 8Michigan2–1No. 15 Rutgers
November 8TCU2–1No. 13 Texas Tech
November 10South Florida2–0No. 8 Memphis
November 10No. 21 Kansas2–1 No. 10 Oklahoma State
November 22Washington State3–2No. 3 Virginia

Conference standings

Conference winners and tournaments

Postseason

NCAA Tournament

Final rankings

Award winners

All-America teams

Major player of the year awards