University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Portland
Women's Soccer Advances To College Cup Final
December 7, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Dec. 7, 2001
DALLAS, TEXAS - The top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels advanced to the championship game of the 2001 Women's College Cup for the 19th time in 20 years Friday night as they held off fourth-seeded Portland 2-1 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
The Tar Heels will play the #2 seed Santa Clara in the NCAA championship game Sunday. It will be played at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and will be televised nationally by ESPN. The Broncos defeated sixth-seeded Florida 3-2 in overtime in Friday's second semifinal game.
UNC improved its record in NCAA women's soccer semifinal games to 19-1 and remained unbeaten and untied on the 2001 season at 24-0-0. The Pilots saw their season end with a 20-4 record. UNC is now 2-0 in NCAA play against Portland, also beating the Pilots in the 1998 NCAA semifinals.
North Carolina got on the board first as a series of nifty passes resulted in the first goal of the contest.
The play started in the midfield as senior midfielder Jena Kluegel fed a through ball down the left side that freshman forward Anne Morrell ran onto and carried deep into the box. Morrell centered the ball to sophomore forward Alyssa Ramsey who with her back to the goal held off her defender and tapped the ball back to senior forward Anne Remy who finished from 11 yards out into the upper left past Portland goalkeeper Cristin Shea.
The goal came at 14:10 of the match. It was Remy's sixth career goal in NCAA Tournament play and her 11th goal during the 2001 season.
North Carolina extended its leas to 2-0 at 58:34 of the match as reserve sophomore forward Elizabeth Ball scored her 10th goal of the season. Freshman midfielder Sara Randolph won the ball on the right side and fed Remy in the right side of the box. Remy back heeled the ball across the mouth of the goal where Ball collected it, pivoted and sent it into an empty net on the left side of the goal. Ball's goal was the first for her since the November 1 win over NC State in the regular season.
Portland drew within one goal at 69:35 on a goal by reserve forward Lisa Casagrande. The ball was fed into the North Carolina box by Erin Misaki and the Pilots had a numbers advantage. A Carolina player got her foot on the ball but was unable to clear it and the ball fell right to Casagrande who was alone with Branam from about 14 yards out. Branam got a hand on Casgrande's shot but it had enough mustard to get into the lower right corner.
Carolina peppered the Pilots' goal with several chances down the stretch and Portland also threatened with a couple of dangerous corner kicks but the Heels held on for the victory.
UNC outshot Portland 18-6 and had six corner kicks to four for the Pilots. Shea made eight saves in goal for Portland.
#4 PORTLAND 0 1--1
#1 NORTH CAROLINA 1 1--2
Scoring Summary:
14:10--North Carolina--Anne Remy (Alyssa Ramsey, Anne Morrell)
58:34--North Carolina--Elizabeth Ball (Anne Remy, Sara Randolph)
69:35--Portland--Lisa Casagrande (unassisted)
Shots: Portland 6, North Carolina 18
Corner Kicks: Portland 4, North Carolina 6
Goalkeeper Saves: Cristin Shea (UP) 8, Jenni Branam (UNC) 0
Back Saves: Portland 1, North Carolina 1
Fouls: Portland 9, North Carolina 16
Yellow Cards: None
Offside Violations: Portland 2, North Carolina 3
Starting Lineups:
Portland-- Cristin Shea (GK), Betsy Barr, Imani Dorsey, Erin Goodling, Lindsay Smart, Erin Misaki, Brooke O'Hanley, Emily Patterson, Christine Sinclair, Lauren Orlandos, Kristen Rogers
North Carolina-- Jenni Branam (GK), Maggie Tomecka, Jena Kluegel, Sara Randolph, Anne Remy, Alyssa Ramsey, Jordan Walker, Leslie Gaston, Danielle Borgman, Catherine Reddick, Anne Morrell
Substitutes:
Portland-- Lisa Casagrande, Kristen Moore
North Carolina-- Elizabeth Ball, Carmen Watley, Mary McDowell, Anne Felts, Amy Whittier
Game Officials: Msail Tsapos (Referee), Rachel Woo (Assistant Referee), Debbie Church (Assistant Referee), Kara Lee Sutton (Assistant Referee)
Attendance: TBA
