Etc.

Hot ticket: Women's soccer games at U. of Portland. While attendance for women's intercollegiate sports events often lags well behind that for men's games, that doesn't hold true in soccer. Consider the University of Portland (Ore.). Last season, its women's team, a perennial powerhouse in the Northwest, led all National Collegiate Athletic Association soccer programs, regardless of gender, in average attendance, with 3,408 spectators per game. That's more than even the reigning national champions drew: the University of North Carolina (women) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (men). The college soccer attendance leaders in 2006, with the average crowd size:

Women's

University of Portland 3,4082.

Texas A&M 3,3603.

Brigham Young 2,0704.

Notre Dame 1,9015.

North Carolina 1,888

Men's

Connecticut 2,931

Virginia 2,879

Maryland 2,727

University of California, Santa Barbara 2,720

St. Louis University 2,470