On Friday, December 6th, the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer College Cup gets underway in Cary, North Carolina. In the United States, all three matches of the College Cup will be televised live on ESPNU and streamed live via the ESPN+ streaming service.
In the first semifinal, Stanford, which has three national titles (2011, 2017, 2019), will face off against Wake Forest, which returns to its second College Cup after debuting in 2011.
The second semifinal features overall #1 seed Duke Blue Devils taking on the storied North Carolina Tarheels. For Duke, this is head coach Robbie Church’s final College Cup, as he is retiring after the tournament (The Chronicle). While North Carolina has 21 NCAA national titles, in four previous tries, Duke has yet to a win a College Cup, though they have finished as national runner-up three times (1992, 2011, 2015) and twice under Church (2011 and 2015). North Carolina, for the first time in its history, will play a College Cup without Anson Dorrance on the sideline, after his somewhat surprise retirement back in August.
How to Watch
In the United States, both College Cup semifinals, as well as the national final, will be televised live on ESPNU and streamed live via ESPN+, which will have separate English-language and Spanish-language streams.
ESPN+ (plus.espn.com), is a paid streaming service from ESPN that is separate from its cable/satellite/etc. channels such as ESPN and ESPN2.
The ESPNU channel is typically included in TV service provider packages that are above the standard level, which usually just have ESPN and ESPN2. ESPNU may also be available in a sports tier.
For live scores, the official NCAA.com interactive bracket is the best option, though sometimes there may delays or other issues in updating. For following individual matches, StatBroadcast provides more comprehensive statistics.
NCAA College Cup Schedule
Notes:
- All times listed are Eastern.
- Schedule is subject to change.
- Hyperlinks link to the match’s ESPN+ English-language stream.
- The higher-ranked team is listed first.
Friday, December 6th
- 5:00 p.m. ET: Wake Forest vs. Stanford — ESPNU / ESPN+
- 7:00 p.m. ET: Studio Coverage — ESPNU
- 7:30 p.m. ET: Duke vs. North Carolina — ESPNU / ESPN+
Note: The start of the second semifinal may be delayed if the first match goes into extra time.
Monday, December 9th
- 7:00 p.m. ET: Championship Final (Wake Forest vs. North Carolina) — ESPNU / ESPN+
- 9:00 p.m. ET: Trophy Presentation — ESPN+
Extra Time and Penalties
For the 2024 season, the NCAA has reverted to its traditional sudden death overtime rule — a.k.a. the “golden goal” rule — for tournament matches. (See Rule 7.2 of the NCAA Soccer – 2024 and 2025 Rules Book.) This is in contrast to the normal FIFA tournament format of playing two full periods of extra time.
Also, the extra time periods are shorter: 10 minutes each, versus 15 minutes under the normal FIFA format.
If no team has scored in the two periods of extra time, then the match will be decided via a standard penalty shootout.
Women's Soccer Express 