2002 NIRSA National Soccer Championship

The 2002 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 9th NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at the Kern County Soccer Complex in Bakersfield, California from Thursday, November 21 to Saturday, November 23, 2002.

Men's championship
In the finals, 5-time, and reigning, champions BYU would face in-state rivals Weber State. Preceding the tournament, the teams had already played twice with BYU winning the first match 1–0 and both teams tying the second. In the group stage, BYU would win all three of their matches, first beating Indiana 2–0, then Delaware 5–1, and finally Rice 2–1. Meanwhile, Weber State would win their opener against Virginia 3–1, then would lose their second match 2–0 to Michigan, but would win their finale against Kansas 2–1 to secure second in the group.

In the knockout round, Weber State would win their first two games by a score of 3–1, first against Arizona in the quarterfinals and then against Delaware in the semifinals, to advance to their first finals. Meanwhile, BYU would win their quarterfinal matchup 6–2 against Illinois followed by a 3–0 win against Michigan to reach their 6th finals in their 7th tournament appearance, winning all 5 of their previous finals appearances.

In the finals, Tyson Craythorne of Weber State would open the scoring six minutes into the game giving BYU their first deficit of the tournament. Near the end of match, BYU's goalkeeper, Erik Walunas, would receive a red card denying Weber State of an obvious goal scoring opportunity on a breakaway. Shortly after, in the final minutes of the match, Weber State's Curtis Whitesides would score the second goal of the game and secure Weber State's first NIRSA title. Weber State's goalkeeper, Scott Badger, would be named the tournament's MVP after maintaining a shutout despite facing 24 shots. Following this tournament, BYU would move to the Premier Development League and would not play at the club level again until 2015.

Women's championship
In the finals, 2000 champions, Michigan, would face two-time champion Colorado in a rematch of the 1999 semifinals which Michigan won 1–0, the 2000 quarterfinals that Michigan won in penalties, and their group stage finale in this tournament. In the group stage, both teams would beat Maryland and Texas A&M by the same score of 3–0 and 4–1, respectively. These results secured a knockout round berth for both teams going into the group stage finale but following a 2–2 draw, both teams were level on all tie-breaking metrics, meaning a coin flip would need to be used to determine group seeding. Michigan would lose the coin flip and end up 2nd in the group, meaning they'd have to play Group A winners, JMU, in the quarterfinals while Colorado would face Group D runners-up, Virginia Tech.

In the quarterfinals, Michigan would win 1–0 over JMU while Colorado would win 3–1 over Virginia Tech. In the semifinals, Michigan would beat San Diego State 3–0 while Colorado would beat two-time champion Miami (OH) 2–0. Both teams would make their third finals appearance.

In the finals, Colorado would open the scoring 5 minutes into the second half but Michigan would level the match 15 minutes later with a goal from junior, Bethany Dalby, on a penalty kick after it was deemed Colorado handled the ball in their own box. With five minutes remaining in the match, sophomore Gwen Reyes of Michigan would score what would go on to be the game-winning goal. Michigan's Katie Keller would be named tournament MVP and Michigan would become the fourth team to win two national titles following Miami (OH), Colorado, and Colorado State.

Men's open
In the finals, Texas A&M would make their first finals and play against 2000 championship division winners, Penn State. Prior to this, in the group stage, both teams would top their groups after winning all three games, with Texas A&M defeating Oregon, Grand Valley State, and UC-Santa Barbara by a score of 1–0, 3–1, and 1–0 respectively and with Penn State defeating Colorado, Central Washington, and Wichita State by a score of 2–1, 2–0, and 5–1 respectively. In the quarterfinals, Texas A&M would defeat two-time open champions, JMU, by a score of 1–0 then would beat Colorado 3–0 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Penn State would beat UC-Santa Barbara 1–0 in the quarterfinals then beat Utah Valley State 2–0. In the finals, Texas A&M would defeat Penn State by their largest margin of victory in a 4–0 win and claim their first open title. Texas A&M's Joe Shine would be named the tournament's MVP.

Women's open
In the finals, Delaware and Arizona would meet in what would be the first finals for both teams. In the group stage, both teams would win all 3 games with Arizona beating UC-Davis, Cornell, and Colorado "Black" by scores of 4–0, 3–0, and 2–1, respectively and with Delaware beating Colorado School of the Mines, Long Beach State (who did not attend), and Purdue by a score of 5–1, 1-0 (forfeit score), and 1-0 respectively.

In the knockout round, Arizona would defeat 1996 championship runners-up, Purdue, 2-1 then would beat 2000 open division champions Virginia 2–1 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Delaware would defeat Texas Tech in penalties following a 0–0 draw in regulation and overtime, then would beat reigning open champions Colorado "Black" 2–0 in the semifinals. In the finals, the game would end in a 1–1 draw after regulation, making it the second straight year overtime would be required in the finals. In overtime, Delaware would score the game winning, golden-goal to win their first open championship. Co-captain, Sarah White, of Delaware would be named the division's MVP.

Format
The competition consisted of 64 teams partitioned into 32 teams per gender. Each of these partitions were further divided into two 16-team divisions: an invite-only championship division and an open division. These divisions divided teams into four groups of four and first engaged in a round-robin tournament. In these groups, teams played each of the other three teams in their group once with the two best teams at the end of play advancing to an 8-team, single-elimination, knockout stage. The first metric for determining the best team was points, calculated first by giving a team 6 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. Then, a team could be awarded an addition point for a shutout and an additional point for every goal scored, up to a max of 3 goals per game. If teams were tied on points, the following criteria were used in order: Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner. If a knockout-stage game was tied at the end of regulation, overtime would begin. Overtime in the quarterfinals consisted of two, 5-minute, golden-goal periods while in the semifinals and finals, overtime consisted of two, 10-minute, golden-goal periods. If still tied after overtime, kicks from the mark would determine the winner. Pool play and quarterfinal games were two 40-minute halves, separated by a seven-minute halftime with the semifinals and finals also being 40-minute halves, but having a ten-minute halftime. If a player received three yellow cards during the course of the tournament they would be suspended the following the game.
 * 1) Winner of head-to-head competition
 * 2) Greatest goal difference
 * 3) Most goals scored
 * 4) Coin toss

Qualification and selections
Each of the six regions received two automatic bids for each the men's and women's championship divisions that they awarded to its members. The reigning champions, BYU in the men's division and Penn State in the women's division, received an automatic bid with the final 5 bids for each division considered "at-large", and given out by NIRSA to teams, typically based on their regional tournament results and RPI.

The remaining teams participated in the open division, chosen on a first-come first-serve basis via online registration beginning on September 3, 2002.

Women's open
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