University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 4 Tar Heels Head To Santa Barbara For College Cup
December 6, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Dec. 6, 2010
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Fresh off a third-straight penalty shootout win over fifth-seeded SMU on Friday, the fourth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels will head to Santa Barbara, Calif. this week for their third-straight NCAA College Cup appearance. The Tar Heels will do battle against No. 1 Louisville on Friday at 5:30 p.m. PT in Harder Stadium on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Third Time's A Charm? • The North Carolina men's soccer team will be making its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA College Cup Friday when they take on No. 1 Louisville in the first of two semifinal matches at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif. at 5:30 p.m. PT. Carolina fell in penalties a year ago against Akron after falling 1-0 to Maryland in the 2008 national title contest.
• Carolina becomes the 12th team in NCAA history to advance to three consecutive NCAA College Cups and just the fourth since 1996.
• Nine of the 12 teams to advance to three straight NCAA College Cups captured a title.
• Carolina becomes the fourth Atlantic Coast Conference team to appear in three straight NCAA College Cups joining Virginia, Maryland and Wake Forest, who all captured at least one title during their runs.
• An ACC team has appeared in the NCAA College Cup for 10 straight years and captured the title five times, including the last three.
How We Got Here
• The Tar Heels are coming off an NCAA record back-to-back-to-back shootout wins over Georgetown, Michigan State and No. 5 SMU, while the Cardinals have claimed wins over College of Charleston (3-1), No. 16 Ohio State (2-1) and No. 8 UCLA (5-4).
• The battle with Michigan State saw Enzo Martinez put a shot into the back of the net with only nine seconds showing on the clock to tie the game against the visiting Spartans. Martinez and the Tar Heels would keep the Spartans from scoring in the 20 minutes of overtime before claiming the shootout, 5-4.
• SMU struck first in the quarterfinal match beating Carolina for the quickest goal against the Tar Heel defense this season in the fifth minute. Arthur Ivo tallied for the Mustangs before Kirk Urso answered less than five minutes later. The teams would go scoreless the final 100 minutes before Carolina came away with another shootout win, this time by a 4-2 margin.
Perfect From The Spot
• During Carolina's miraculous run the NCAA Tournament the Tar Heels have been a perfect 14-of-14 in their penalty shootout attempts.
• In regular season action the Tar Heels were 3-of-3 in penalties as Michael Farfan was 2-of-2 and Matt Rose converted his lone opportunity.
• In the postseason shootouts Kirk Urso, Drew McKinney and Jalil Anibaba are 3-of-3; Michael Farfan and Enzo Martinez are 2-of-2 and Alex Walters is 1-of-1.
California Connection
• Three Tar Heels hail from the Golden State, while a fourth began his college career in California. Seniors Michael Farfan (Wildomar, Calif./Cal State Fullerton), Jalil Anibaba (Davis, Calif./Santa Clara) and Stephen McCarthy (Colleyville, Texas/Santa Clara) all began their college careers in California. Sophomore midfielder Jordan Gafa hails from San Diego, Calif.
Scouting The Cardinals
• Louisville comes in with a flawless 19-0-3 mark on the year and will make its first College Cup appearance. The Cardinals had not advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament in their previous three appearances.
• The Cardinals rank in the top 25 in the country in three statistical categories as they rank 21st in the nation with a 0.73 goals against average, No. 6 in total goals with 47 and No. 9 in scoring offense with more than two goals per game.
• Louisville has four goal scorers who have found the back of the net at least six times this year led by MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist Colin Rolfe who has posted 25 points on nine goals and seven assists.
• Nick Deleon and Dylan Mares have posted identical eight goal and three assist lines, while Charlie Campbell has tallied six goals on the year.
Common Opponents
• The Cardinals opened the season at the Duke Tournament and posted a 1-0-1 record. Louisville drew the season opener with Duke, 0-0 after 110 minutes. Sept. 5 saw the Cardinals claim a 2-1 overtime win over NC State.
• The Tar Heels went 3-0-0 against similar competition beating Duke 1-0 in Durham Sept. 17. The week before Carolina took down NC State 1-0 in Raleigh and the dispatched the Wolfpack 4-0 in the ACC Quarterfinal round.
Noting The Tar Heels
• Sophomore Enzo Martinez picked up his team-leading 10th goal of the year Sunday afternoon with the equalizer against the Spartans and now ranks 29th in the country in total goals.
• The Tar Heel defense has been Carolina's staple all season long as Carolina ranks fifth in the nation in goals against average with a 0.63 goals against mark. The Carolina backline has been stalwarts all season long, led by the centerback duo of Jalil Anibaba and Drew McKinney. Eddie Ababio and Matt Rose have anchored the outside back position for the Tar Heels, while goalkeeper Scott Goodwin has allowed just 15 goals and posted 11 shutouts on the year.
National Rankings
| Ranking |
Carolina |
Louisville |
| NCAA Seed |
4 |
1 |
| Final RPI |
2 |
3 |
| NSCAA |
4 |
1 |
| Top Drawer |
4 |
1 |
| College Soccer |
4 |
1 |
| Soccer America |
4 |
3 |
Series History
• Friday's semifinal will be the first meeting between the squads.
Last Time Out
• It was the same song with a different verse Friday night at Fetzer Field as No. 4 North Carolina and No. 5 SMU battled to a 1-1 draw before the Tar Heels came away with a third-straight penalty shootout win to advance to the NCAA College Cup for the third consecutive year. Carolina claimed a 4-2 shootout win over the Mustangs en route to punching its ticket for Santa Barbara, Calif. and the 2010 NCAA College Cup
Moving On Without A Win
• The Tar Heels became the first team in NCAA history to win three straight shootouts. Carolina has yet to record a win in the NCAA Tournament as all three contests go into the record books as draws.
• North Carolina became the first team since 2008 and only the third team in NCAA history to win back-to-back penalty shootouts in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Tar Heels opened the NCAA Tournament with a 0-0 draw against Georgetown but beat the Hoyas 5-4 in penalties to move on to the third round.
• The Tar Heels followed that up with a 1-1 tie against visiting Michigan State Nov. 28 and an identical 5-4 shootout win over the Spartans.
• The last team to win back-to-back penalty shootouts was the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2008 when it defeated Dayton and Boston College in the first and second round.
• The only other team to accomplish the feat was Davidson in 1992 when the Wildcats beat Charlotte and Coastal Carolina in a pair of shootouts.
Steady Eddie
• Senior Eddie Ababio has been a fixture in North Carolina lineup since he stepped on campus in the fall of 2006 and on Friday will be Carolina's all-time leader in games played when he dons the Carolina blue for the 89th time.
• The previous mark of 88 games played was held by a trio of former Tar Heels. Brian Shriver accomplished the feat from 2005-08, Noz Yamauchi from 1998-2001 and current San Jose Earthquake Chris Leitch from 1998-2001 as well.
Farfan Named MAC Hermann Semifinalist
• Senior midfielder Michael Farfan was named a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist Dec. 2 as announced by the Missouri Athletic Club and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Farfan is one of 15 semifinalists up for the most prestigious award in intercollegiate soccer. Three finalists will be announced on Friday, Dec. 10.
