By: by Scott Lipsky
KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State University will serve as host of the 2011 Women’s College Cup, which will be held at the brand-new KSU Soccer Stadium, the NCAA announced on Tuesday. The event will be held Dec. 2 and 4, and will be the first NCAA Division I championship to be held on the KSU campus.
KSU Soccer Stadium is the home to the Owls women’s soccer team and the Atlanta Beat of Women’s Professional Soccer. It opened its’ doors in May of this year, with the Black and Gold playing their first match in their new friendly confines on Aug. 14. An 8,300 seat facility built specifically for women’s soccer, KSU Soccer Stadium is the largest gender-specific soccer stadium in the country.
“The committee is thrilled with the selection of Kennesaw State as host of the 2011 NCAA Women’s Soccer College Cup. The committee’s priority is to select a championship site that will continue to elevate the championship experience, meanwhile enhancing the student-athlete experience,” said Dr. Lisa Campos, the NCAA Division I women’s soccer chairperson. “We are confident Kennesaw State is committed to these goals and will conduct a first-class championship.”
By hosting the Women’s College Cup, Kennesaw State finds themselves in prestigious company. The event, which is made up of the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship, has been hosted exclusively by Texas A&M and North Carolina State over the last seven years, with N.C. State playing host once again in Cary, N.C. this coming December. Women’s soccer juggernaut North Carolina has also hosted seven times since the championships’s inception in 1982. Kennesaw State will become the first Atlantic Sun Conference school to play host to the final rounds of an NCAA championship in any sport.
“We're thrilled that the 2011 NCAA Women's College Cup Champion will be decided at Kennesaw State's new soccer stadium. The A-Sun plays in many outstanding facilities, and KSU's soccer stadium is second to none,” said Ted Gumbart, Atlantic Sun Conference Commissioner. “This will be a tremendous site and KSU, past host of numerous A-Sun soccer championships, will do an excellent job as host for the Women's College Cup.”
Owls head coach Rob King, who will be co-chairing the event, was excited to hear that the program would be hosting an event of this magnitude, and can’t wait to see the highest level of women’s college soccer right on his team’s home field.
"We're excited and honored to have been selected as the host university for the 2011 Women's College Cup,” King said on Tuesday. “The new Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium is the country's premier women's soccer-specific stadium and we look forward to showcasing college soccer's most prestigious event."
The Black and Gold are no strangers to hosting NCAA tournaments. During their Division II days, women’s soccer hosted the national quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship in 2003 on their way to the national title. Baseball played host to NCAA Division II Regionals for four years straight, from 1995 to 1998. Most recently, men’s basketball hosted the Division II Southeast Regional during their national title run in 2004. Softball and women’s basketball also hosted regionals on the Kennesaw State campus before the program made the jump to Division I.
