San Jose CyberRays was a professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team that played in the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

. The team played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State Universit ...

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. Stars included U.S. National Team star

Brandi Chastain Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...

, WUSA Goalkeeper of the Year LaKeysia Beene, and leading scorer Julie Murray. Other memorable CyberRays were Brazilians Sissi and

Katia Katia is a feminine given name. It is a variant of Katya. Notable people with this name Actresses and models * Katia Dandoulaki, Greek actress * Katia Margaritoglou, Greek fashion model and beauty contestant * Katia Winter (born 1983), Sw ...

Tisha Venturini Tisha Lea Venturini-Hoch (; born March 3, 1973) is a former American soccer player and current National Spokesperson for Produce for Better Health. She is a gold medalist in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and a world champion in the 1999 FIFA Wo ...

(from the U.S. National Team), and "ironwoman" Thori Bryan, who played every minute of the first season. They were coached by Ian Sawyers, who received WUSA Coach of the Year honors in 2001.

History

Establishment

The CyberRays were founded in 2000 as a member of the

, the first professional women's soccer league in the United States. The league featured many of the stars from the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted as well as ...

. The team featured United States women's national team players and league founding players

and LaKeysia Beene.

Year-by-year

Inaugural season

The team won the WUSA title (known as the Founders Cup) for the league's inaugural season in 2001. The CyberRays triumphed over the Atlanta Beat, in a 4–2 shootout after double overtime of a 3–3 game. It was the only year in the country's history that both a women's and men's professional soccer team won championship titles in the same city.

2002

In 2002 the team changed its name from the Bay Area CyberRays to the San Jose CyberRays, and also gave their roster a facelift, allowing Murray to retire and trading for Pretinha from the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

, who along with Katia and Sissi, gave the new attack a decidedly Brazilian flavor. The bold changes didn't have the desired effect, however, and the team finished out of the playoffs. One bright spot was the emergence of Katia, who scored 15 goals and broke Tiffeny Milbrett's record for most points in a season.

2003

The CyberRays had high hopes for 2003, but an anemic offense (worst in the league in goals scored) hurt the team all year. The team remained in contention until the end of the season, but finished out of the playoffs for a second straight year. But even bigger problems were brewing in the background, as the WUSA continued to struggle financially. The CyberRays folded on September 15, 2003, when the league announced it was suspending operations.

Stadium

The CyberRays played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

. The stadium was used for the

and was also the home of the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional association football, soccer club based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Origin ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

from 1996 to 2005. At the time, the stadium featured a grass pitch and up to 30,456 capacity.

Broadcasting

In 2002, games were broadcast on television via

PAX TV Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American terrestrial television, broadcast television network and Free ad-supported streaming television, FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scri ...

. California Bears assistant coach Jennifer Thomas provided color commentary while KCBS Radio sports announcer Hal Ramey was the play-by-play announcer. A number of league games were broadcast on

Turner Sports TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery in the United States that is responsible for Sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max (streaming service), Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS (Americ ...

and CNN/Sports Illustrated.

References

External links

San Jose CyberRays website (archive.org)
{{Women's United Soccer Association Defunct soccer clubs in California Women's soccer clubs in the United States C Soccer clubs in California Women's United Soccer Association teams 2001 establishments in California 2003 disestablishments in California Association football clubs established in 2001 Association football clubs disestablished in 2003 Women's sports in San Jose, California