‘Cardiac Frogs’ of TCU women’s soccer ready for first shot at national semifinal
The TCU women’s soccer team has gone where no Horned Frog has gone before.
No. 2-seeded TCU (18-2-3) will take on No. 3 Florida State (14-2-4) in the College Cup national semifinals at 5 p.m. Friday at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. No. 1 seed Stanford (20-1-2) will play No. 2 Duke (17-4-1) in the other semifinal at 7:45 p.m. The matches will be televised on ESPNU.
The winners will play for the national championship at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPNU.
No team in TCU history has ever gone this far in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think it’s really cool to be doing this and having this experience,“ sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Geller said. “Kind of doing something that feels unprecedented is really cool, and the best part is getting to do it with the people that we care about, people we love. That’s awesome.”
It was far from an easy ride for the Horned Frogs, who in each of their past two games had to overcome deficits in the final minutes to force overtime and left North Carolina and Vanderbilt stunned after pulling off the victories in extra time.
TCU tied the Tar Heels with only four seconds left in regulation before winning a penalty shootout. In the quarterfinals Saturday, the Horned Frogs tied the Commodores with four minutes left, then converted a penalty kick to advance after a foul in overtime.
TCU head coach Eric Bell said his “Cardiac Frogs” have remained composed when the pressure was highest.
“I think that throughout the course of the season, we’ve been what has been coined the ‘Cardiac Frogs,’” he said. “So I think we’ve had a penchant, which I don’t think is a good thing. We got a penchant for having to score goals late in the game to either equalize or win the game, and so I think the mentality is of resilience and knowing that if there’s still time left on the clock, then there’s time enough to score goals.”
A major reason TCU has been able to win these past two games has been the play of Geller, who has made some spectacular saves to stymie opposing offenses, but Geller praised her defense when talking about the team’s win over Vanderbilt.
“My back line helped me out a lot,” she said. “Mother Nature wasn’t on our side; the elements were there. It was raining, it was cold. Wasn’t home-field advantage. We did have a lot of our fans there, but it wasn’t the same as being here. But I think I have so many thanks to give to my team. I think I did my job, but I definitely couldn’t have done it without any of them.”
While TCU heads to its first College Cup, it faces a Seminoles program that has the second-most appearances all time (15), including six of the past eight seasons, and has won four national titles, including three since 2018.
Despite being only a No. 3 seed in its region this year, the Seminoles have dominated their NCAA Tournament opponents, outscoring them 12-2, including a 4-1 victory over Ohio State in the quarterfinals.
TCU sophomore defender Morgan Brown, a first-team All-Big 12 selection, talked about getting ready to play one of college soccer’s greatest programs.
“They’ve been a good program for as long as I’ve been playing soccer, and I think it’s just an honor to play them,” she said. “They’ve got athletic kids. I’m just excited.”
Of course, TCU already defeated the most-storied team in women’s soccer in North Carolina, which has 22 national titles. Bell said the Horned Frogs stay focused on the names on the back of the jersey and not the front.
“Keeping the main thing, the main thing, you know,” he said. “It’s good that we’ve played a pretty tough schedule, and hopefully we walk into the field on Friday not playing their jersey, but playing the team that’s actually in front of us. And that’s the expectation, and I’m sure that we’ll do that.”
Friday’s game will be a homecoming for TCU senior defender Grace Coppinger, a second-team All-Big 12 selection.
“So the coolest thing for me is, I’m from Kansas City, and so just to see ... the community come around women’s soccer is amazing, and I can’t wait for our team to be a part of that,” she said. “I mean, I’ve seen it with [the National Women’s Soccer League team] KC Current, but to see our team supported like that in women’s soccer, it’s going to be amazing, and I can’t wait.”
While many see the fruits of TCU’s labor now, the planting started before the season began. Coppinger said the Horned Frogs believed they could get this far despite no team in school history ever doing so.
“That started in the summer, when we kind of were off the field, building relationships,” she said. “I think that that gave us more confidence, because we trusted each other, and then I think that was kind of our foundation throughout the season, and what makes us so strong as a team.”
With a win, TCU would go to its first national championship game, but Brown said the team was focused on the task at hand.
“I think as a whole team, the main goal is to just be present in this moment, be present in this game,” she said. “Whoever we play, we’ll play. We’ll get to that.”
