Shocking upsets on opening night of NCAA soccer play

The GIST: Nonconference action was a blast, but conference play, which got underway last night, is where the real fun begins.

The women: Last night brought drama between the lines, with unranked Princeton and Lamar upsetting No. 10 Georgetown and No. 17 Xavier, respectively. But the biggest shock was BYU’s Big 12 debut: The nation’s No. 1 went down 2–0 in under 27 minutes and had to battle back to draw unranked TCU 3–3. Welcome to the Power Five, baby.

• Looking ahead, it’s all eyes on the ACC. Undefeated No. 8 Clemson kicks off competition in arguably the most cutthroat Division I conference when they host also-undefeated No. 4 Florida State tonight at 4 p.m. ET on ACCNX. LFG.

The men: The fellas ordered déjà vu from last night’s menu, because one hour after the gals’ top squad drew to open conference play, so did the No. 1 Stanford men, who battled their Pac-12 foes, the unranked Washington Huskies, to a 1–1 finish. Both first-half goals came off of set pieces, meaning these squads are, ahem, Pac’ked with strong defense.

• The season’s just heating up, and the tough Sun Belt — with its four Top-10 teams — is ready to boil with two absolute scorchers: No. 5 UCF hosts No. 4 WVU tonight at 7 p.m. ET, before No. 2 Marshall faces No. 9 JMU at the same time tomorrow. Game on.