Florida State Seminoles women’s soccer head coach Mark Krikorian, who has established FSU as a national power over his decade-plus tenure, is stepping away from the program.
Krikorian announced his decision via an email.
Some excerpts from his official bio, written prior to FSU winning the national title this past season, are below:
Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian took over the Seminole women’s soccer program in 2005 and has proven to the nation that FSU soccer will be a national title contender on an annual basis. Through 15 seasons in Tallahassee, Krikorian has led FSU to a pair of NCAA National Championships in 2014 and 2018, nine College Cup appearances, four appearances in the national title game (2007, 2013, 2014 and 2018), three ACC regular-season titles (2009, 2012 and 2014) and six league championships (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018).
Krikorian has registered at least 16 wins in 13 of 15 seasons at Florida State while finishing no lower than second place a total of 12 times in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the nation’s premier soccer conference.
Earning the 2018 NCAA Championship was a complete team effort, as the Seminoles played with 14 different starting lineups through the 27 matches of the season due to a combination of injuries, international call-ups and illnesses. Nineteen of the 23 players that saw game action on the year earned at least one start and no lineup combination was used more than six times on the year.
That allowed the team to gain valuable experience and versatility and depth to make the run to the ACC and NCAA Championship. The Seminoles finished with a 20-4-3 record and defeated each of the last three national champions in the 2018 NCAA Tournament en route to their second title – 2017 Stanford, 2016 USC and 2015 Penn State. Florida State defeated No. 1 Stanford in the NCAA semifinal by a score of 2-0, snapping the Cardinal’s 45-match unbeaten streak, which was the fourth-longest in NCAA history. Overall,…