UNC Meets Florida State Sunday For NCAA Championship

Sunday, December 2

Cary, N.C. (WakeMed Soccer Park)

1:00 PM

North Carolina

Florida State

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

December 1, 2018 | Women's Soccer

Championship Game Bullet Points (pdf)Live Stats 2018 Statistics Purchase College Cup Tickets GoHeels Exclusive: Learning From Losses

Game time is 1 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park

By: Dave Lohse

University of North Carolina NCAA Championship Game Bullet Points

• The Tar Heels will play Florida State Sunday at 1 p.m. in the NCAA Women's Soccer championship match at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, N.C. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU with Jenn Hildreth on the play by play and Julie Foudy on the color commentary.

• After beating Georgetown 1-0 on Friday in the NCAA Tournament semifinals, UNC improved its all-time tournament record to 131-13-4, a winning percentage of 89.9 percent. The win over Georgetown improved UNC to 25-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament semifinal games with losses to Notre Dame in 1995, Santa Clara in 2002 and West Virginia in 2016.

• The win over Georgetown Friday improved Carolina to 7-0 all-time in NCAA College Cup games played at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, N.C. UNC won NCAA titles at Sahlen's Stadium in 2003 (wins over UCLA and Connecticut), 2006 (wins over UCLA and Notre Dame) and 2008 (wins over UCLA and Notre Dame).

• Carolina has played the majority of its home games at WakeMed Soccer Park's Koka Booth Stadium while construction of the new UNC Soccer & Lacrosse Stadium on campus continues. Sunday's match will mark the 12^th straight game UNC has played at the WakeMed Soccer Complex (eight games at Koka Booth, four games at Sahlen's Stadium) dating back to a match against Boston College on October 18, 2018.

• Sunday's appearance in the championship match will mark the 25^th title game appearance in history for North Carolina. UNC is 21-3 in its previous 24 NCAA championship game appearances. UNC won titles in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012. UNC only losses in the title game came against George Mason in 1985, Florida in 1998 and Santa Clara in 2001.

• In his 40^th year as the Tar Heel head coach, Anson Dorrance is now 847-73-40 all-time in his career as the women's coach. That is a winning percentage of 90.3 percent. Dorrance won his 800^th game as a women's head coach against Wake Forest on October 9, 2016. He won his 1,000^th game as a collegiate head coach on August 18, 2018 versus Ohio State (he coached UNC's men from 1977-88 and won 172 games as its head coach and his win over OSU that day boosted his women's win total to 828 at the time).

• UNC's win overtime Georgetown on Friday improved Carolina all-time in NCAA Tournament overtime games to 10-3-3. UNC is 40-17-39 all-time in overtime games.

• UNC and Florida State have played 41 times in history heading into Sunday's match. UNC is 28-9-4 in those matches. The Tar Heels and the Seminoles met twice this year. Carolina won 1-0 in the regular season meeting in Tallahassee on September 14. Florida State defeated UNC 3-2 in the ACC Tournament championship match at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, N.C. on November 4, 2018. UNC is 4-1-1 against FSU since the regular-season meeting in 2016. Prior to that, FSU had gone 6-0-1 against Carolina in a period of time from 2011 to 2015.

• Julia Ashley, a senior, currently leads UNC in scoring with 22 points. If she ended the season as Carolina's scoring leader after Sunday's game, she would be the first defender in history to ever lead Carolina in scoring.

• Julia Ashley's 10 assists are the most by a Tar Heels since Courtney Jones had 14 assists for the Tar Heels in 2010.

• UNC has one of the most balanced scoring sheets in the country, having scored 57 goals in 26 games. Senior defender Julia Ashley, sophomore forward Alessia Russo and freshman midfielder Brianna Pinto share UNC's goal-scoring lead with six each. Sophomore midfielder Taylor Otto, junior forward Bridgette Andrzejewski, freshman forward Rachael Dorwart and senior midfielder Dorian Bailey have each scored five goals. Senior forward Alex Kimball and junior forward Zoe Redei have four goals each.

• Samantha Leshnak ranks third in NCAA goals against average at the NCAA Division I level this year at 0.037. She trails only Arielle Schechtman of Georgetown at 0.308 and Penn's Kitty u at 0.352. Leshnak set a school record by not conceding a goal for 1,119 minutes and 23 seconds this season, breaking marks set by Anne Sherow in 1987 and Lori Walker in 1989. That streak extended from the first half of the Texas game on August 22 through the first half of the Florida State game on November 4.

• UNC's 21 victories this year as the most for a Tar Heel team since the 2009 squad finished 23-3-1 en route to winning the NCAA championship that year.

• When Emily Fox earned two caps with the U.S. Women's National Team in November, she became the 59^th Tar Heel in history to earn a cap with that team since its founding in 1985.

• Over the past 812 games in its history, dating to the 1985 NCAA championship game, UNC has lost only four games by more than one goal – Notre Dame in 2010, Virginia in 2013, Virginia in 2014 and USC in 2016.

• In 960 matches in UNC history, Carolina has been shutout only 55 times.

• Julia Ashley has 11 points in NCAA Tournament games this year on three goals and five assists. She scored the game-winner Friday against Georgetown. Rachael Dorwart assisted her on the game-winning goal against Georgetown. She has seven points in NCAA Tournament games with three goals and her game-winning assist for seven points. Brianna Pinto has two goals and four assists in NCAA Tournament games for eight points. Bridgette Andrzejewski has five NCAA Tournament points (two goals, one assist).

• Live Stats for NCAA final
• Purchase Tickets for NCAA final

HOTEL SENDOFF INFORMATION: Join Carolina Athletics in giving the women's soccer team a special send-off tomorrow morning as it leaves its hotel for WakeMed Soccer Park where it will compete for a national championship! Arrive by 10:00 am at the Embassy Suites Raleigh Crabtree on 4700 Creedmoor Road, Raleigh, NC 27612. Pom-poms will be available to fans.