University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia (ACC Final)
No. 1 Tar Heels Battle To Draw With No. 4 Cavaliers In ACC Final But Virginia Earns Title On Penalty Kicks
November 7, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 7, 2004
CARY, N.C. - For the first time since 1988 the No. 1-ranked North Carolina women's soccer team failed to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship Sunday as No. 4-ranked Virginia earned the title 5-4 in sudden death penalty kicks after the two teams battled to a 1-1 tie before 3,728 fans as SAS Soccer Stadium Sunday afternoon. UNC finishes the regular season 18-0-2 with the tie and the Cavaliers wound up 16-2-2. Both teams likely secured Top 4 seeds in the upcoming NCAA Championship. Bids and seeds to that tournament with be announced between 4 and 5 p.m. Monday on ESPNNews.
Virginia's ACC championship was its first in women's soccer and it marked only the second time in the 18-year history of the championship that the Tar Heels have failed to win the ACC crown. The other year was 1988 when NC State claimed the title, also in a penalty kick shootout, 4-3, after UNC and the Wolfpack battled to a 1-1 tie in the championship game that season. That match, played on October 30, 1988 at Method Road Soccer Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. was also the last time the Tar Heels had played in a penalty kick situation prior to Sunday.
With the tie Sunday and Notre Dame's 2-1 loss to Connecticut in the Big East Conference Tournament championship match, the Tar Heels finished the 2004 regular season as the only undefeated team in the nation at 18-0-2. UNC has not lost since a 2-1 loss to Santa Clara in the 2002 NCAA semifinals at Austin, Texas. Sunday's match marked the 35th series meeting between Carolina and Virginia and it was the first time UNC has failed to defeat the Cavaliers. The series now stands at 34-0-1.
Virginia opened the scoring at the 23:21 mark when senior Lindsay Gusick scored her 16th goal of the season on a give-and-go with Tournament Most Valuable Player Sarah Huffman. Gusick finished from about 10 yards out to the left side of the goal.
Carolina tied the match at the 55:43 mark after junior forward/midfielder Elizabeth Guess was taken down in the box. UNC junior midfielder Kacey White converted the ensuing penalty kick to tie the match. It was White's fifth goal of the season and she is now three-for-three this season on penalty kicks.
Both teams had some great chances to score other goals in both regulation and overtime. UNC struggled with placing its shots on goal, forcing Virginia goalkeeper Christina de Vries to make only one save, that on a header by Heather O'Reilly. UNC's Aly Winget made three saves, including two brilliant saves, one on a shot by the Cavaliers' Kelly Hammond and the other on a scorcher by Kristen Weiss late in regulation. Weiss also had a shot in the last minute of the second overtime period that first deflected off Winget but was headed into the goal for the Virginia victory before UNC junior midfielder Lori Chalupny rushed in to save the ball off the goal and preserve the tie.
The game went to penalty kicks and after a Tar Heel miss in the first round, it took a save by Winget in the fourth round to even the kicks at 4-4 at the end of regulation five kicks. Virginia then earned the team trophy on the sixth round of kicks after a Virginia goal and a save on the Tar Heel try.
Besides Huffman, other players on the All-Tournament Team included de Vries, Gusick, Wiss and Hammond of Virginia, Jaime Gilbert, Heather O'Reilly and Elizabeth Guess of Carolina, Nikki Resnick of Maryland, Allison Graham of Clemson and Casey McCluskey and Carolyn Riggs of Duke.
