Over the past decade, the University of Portland began to emerge as one of the powers of Division I women's soccer. Two of the current stars of the U.S. National Team, Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan, are former Pilots and the team reached the NCAA Tournament every year between 1992 and 1998, including four semifinal appearances and a 1-0 overtime loss in the final seconds of the last overtime period against Notre Dame in 1995.

In 1999, the team hit a bit of a roadblock, finishing at only 12-7-1 and missing the playoffs for the first time since 1991. Graduation had taken its toll and the Pilots were very young. Fast forward to the 2000 season, and that young team has matured and made the 1999 season look like an aberration and not a new trend.

"They've grown up. We were very young and very immature last year. We knew that. We knew that most of the problems we had during the season couldn't be fixed until the spring when you can practice without worrying about next week's result. We've worked very hard as a team to come together as a team and it's just being a year older, being in the program for another year."

Finishing the regular season at 15-3, Portland was not one of the top eight seeded teams in this year's tournament. In fact, even Portland Head Coach Clive Charles had simple expectations for his team. Just return to the NCAA Tournament. They've done much better. They're now back in the semifinals of the tournament, reliving the glory of past Portland teams.

"We started the season just hoping to make the playoffs. The fact that we've managed to get here has been a bonus for us. I told the team before we played Washington that they'd already exceeded my expectations for this season and now it's all about going out and enjoying yourself. We managed to win that game and then we went away to Penn State and managed to win that game and all of a sudden we find ourselves here. We do realize that we're probably considered to be underdogs, but that's okay."

How did the Pilots make such a strong comeback. Defense pure and simple. If the old cliche "defense wins championships" is correct, Portland has been playing championship soccer. Last year in 20 games, Portland surrendered 26 goals. This year, through 21 matches, they have allowed just eight goals.

"Defensively I think our club has improved a lot," said senior goalkeeper Cheryl Loveless. "They've learned the system very well. We've gone from last year where we were giving up 15 shots a game where this year we give up maybe five shots. So we're taking away opportunities other teams were getting and now they're not."

Charles is realistic about his team's chances in the Women's College Cup, knowing that most of his troops have not been in this position before, despite the impressive recent history of the program.

"I think it helps us as a coaching staff. I'm not sure how much it helps the players because most of the players that were in our other [appearances]. It would only help our players if we still had [Tiffeny] Milbrett,[Shannon] MacMillan, [Justi] Baumgardt, and [Michelle] French. So we have a young team. We're going to have some young players out there. Half of our team have only ever played two playoff games. Obviously the experience we've had in the past doesn't help them. It helps us because we've been there, so hopefully we can help them out a little bit. But that's the nice thing about college soccer, it's always new and fresh."