BRADENTON, Fla. – When Southern Cal was eliminated Tuesday during the semifinals of the NCAA Women’s Championship, a curious streak remained intact.
Never has the No. 1 seed gone on to win the national title. That’s been the case on the men’s side since 2009, when match play was first used to determine the team champion, and it happened again to the top-seeded Trojans in their afternoon match against Stanford.
Does that mean that this match-play experiment doesn’t work, that the format doesn’t crown a deserving champion? Hardly.
Both teams may be ranked outside the top 10, but No.