Best 25 NCAA Women’s Soccer Programs of the Past 5 Years

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Over the past five years, NCAA Division I women’s soccer has seen a rapid increase in parity and overall level of competition across the country.

In that span, four different programs captured College Cup titles: Penn State (2015), USC (2016), Florida State (2018) and Stanford (2017, 2019).

Meanwhile, four other programs have reached a College Cup Final in that period: Duke (2015), West Virginia (2016), UCLA (2017) and North Carolina (2018, 2019).

The University of North Carolina, which won 21 of the first 38 modern-format NCAA championships, has ruled the sport for several decades. Coaching legend Anson Dorrance‘s Tar Heels have reached the College Cup Final in each of the past two seasons, but came up just short in both matches. UNC’s national championship “drought” now goes back to 2012, indicating a rising tide in the college game.

[Best NCAA Women’s Soccer Programs of the Past 5 Years (#26-50)]

While no other program will come close to UNC’s 21 total NCAA championships for at least a few decades (if ever), five others have now claimed at least two national titles. To find out which college soccer programs have been gaining the most momentum in recent years, check out SoccerWire’s latest set of rankings.

Below, we take a look at the best 25 programs in NCAA women’s soccer over the past 5 years, based on their average position in the end-of-season rankings from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Rankings are based on a combination of United Soccer Coaches Polls and Rating Percentage Index (RPI).