Women's Soccer Championships
November 7, 2002 | Women's Soccer
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1999 Women's Soccer Championship
The 1999 campaign started in unsettling fashion as North Carolina lost twice in September and stood just 6-2 after its first eight games, the first time UNC had lost twice in the same season since 1985. However ugly the season began, it ended just as beautifully as Carolina outplayed fellow powerhouse Notre Dame for the NCAA championship.
In front of the largest crowd ever to watch a Carolina women's soccer match, a total attendance of 14,410 in San Jose, California, the Tar Heels fought past Notre Dame 2-0. Junior Meredith Florance and senior midfielder Beth Sheppard scored the goals as Carolina got the shutout. Carolina's previous four NCAA titles had also come in shutout victories.
In the semifinals the Tar Heels defeated Penn State 2-0, one of the goals coming off of the booming punt of freshman goalkeeper Jenni Branam, giving the keeper her second assist of the year off one of her lengthy punts from goal. The win was at least in part redemption for a rare home loss handed to the Tar Heels by the Nittany Lions.
Penn State had defeated Carolina in Chapel Hill during the Nike/Carolina classic in mid September 3-2. Carolina's other loss during their painfully slow start to the season was a 1-0 loss against Santa Clara played in Durham.
Defense became the signature of the 1999 Carolina team. National Player of the Year Lorrie Fair, along with senior Lindsay Stoecker, keyed the defense. The two seniors also got help from first team All-America player Danielle Borgman.
Over the final 18 games of the season, Carolina allowed only five goals, including only one in the final 13 games. En route, the Tar Heels won their 11th straight ACC championship by defeating Wake Forest 3-0. The Heels made the final after eliminating Clemson 1-0 in a game that required overtime to determine a winner. Florida State was Carolina's victim in the tournament's opening round, falling to the Tar Heels by a score of 4-1.
2000 Women's Soccer Championship
The 2000 season saw the North Carolina Tar Heels win their 12th successive ACC championship as well as the program's 17th national championship, all despite losing more games than in any season since 1980. The Tar Heels finished the campaign by outlasting UCLA to capture the NCAA championship and finish the season with an 18-3 record.
The championship came on the wings of a strong offensive performance in the final 20 minutes of the second half to defeat UCLA, 2-1. The game was extremely competitive throughout, with strong defensive plays keeping the score knotted at zero going into halftime.
Early in the second half UCLA managed to break the scoreless deadlock off a rebound to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Carolina relentlessly put pressure on the UCLA defense with shot after shot, but was not able to get a score. Finally with under 15 minutes left on the clock UNC scored the equalizer as a charging Meredith Florance, UNC's leading scorer on the year, blasted in a tap pass from Alyssa Ramsey to tie the score at one apiece.
With nine minutes to go a Tar Heel corner kick found its way into the net. Leslie Gaston redirected the ball in the box and it caromed off a UCLA defender for an own goal and a 2-1 Carolina lead. The own goal was only the second in women's college cup history, the first eliminating North Carolina in 1995. It would prove to be the game winner, as the game ended 2-1.
The Tar Heels had entered the tournament as the fifth seed, opening up with Wake Forest, one of the three ACC teams that had beaten the Heels, who lost three road games during the season. The Heels avenged the loss by eliminating Wake 5-0. Carolina would need rallies similar to the one used to defeat UCLA to win two of its next three tournament games.
The first was a 2-1 decision over Virginia in the third round, which Carolina followed up by rolling past Connecticut 3-0 in the quarterfinals. The win set up a date with top seeded Notre Dame in the semifinals. Carolina rallied once again, eliminating the top seed with a 2-1 victory.
Entering the 2000 season Carolina had only dropped one game in Atlantic Coast Conference history, but all three of its 2000 losses would be road games in the ACC. The first was a 2-1 defeat at Clemson, followed by a double overtime 3-2 loss against Florida State.
The third ACC defeat came at the hands of Wake Forest, who followed Carolina's Florida State loss by beating the Tar Heels 1-0, the first time Carolina had lost back-to-back games since 1982. Despite the three conference losses Carolina managed to win the ACC tournament, besting Duke to take the title.
2003 Women's Soccer Championship
CARY, N.C. - Lindsay Tarpley scored two goals and added two assists and Heather O'Reilly had two goals and an assist to help power the top-ranked University of North Carolina women's soccer team to its 18th national championship in history in 2003 as the Tar Heels beat No. 18 Connecticut 6-0 in the title game before 10,042 fans at SAS Stadium. It was UNC's first national crown since the Tar Heels beat UCLA 2-1 in the 2000 NCAA final in San Jose, Calif.
With the victory, the Tar Heels finished 27-0-0, the best record of any team in women's college soccer history. It is the fifth unbeaten and untied team in UNC lore and the first team to finish unbeaten and untied since Carolina won the national championship in 1993 with a record of 25-0-0 in Mia Hamm's senior year. North Carolina has won 17 of the 22 NCAA titles contested since 1982 and the Tar Heels also won the 1981 AIAW national title.
The Carolina offensive machine was firing on all pistons in the national final as it ran its NCAA Tournament scoring record to 32 goals, including eight by O'Reilly, who was named the NCAA Tournament Most Valuable Offensive Player. UNC also became only the fifth team in NCAA history to go through an entire tournament without allowing a goal, but was the first one to do so in a six-game tournament. UNC goalkeeper Aly Winget recorded five solo shutouts in the tourney, playing behind a defense led by senior Catherine Reddick, the NCAA Tournament's Most Valuable Defensive Player, as well as Carmen Watley and Kendall Fletcher.
Tarpley finished the NCAA Tournament with 19 points, breaking Hamm's UNC record for tournament scoring of 16 points set in 1993. O'Reilly's eight goals were two better than the six Hamm had in 1993 and Tarpley's 11 assists set an overall NCAA Tournament record for assists.
Tarpley got the Tar Heels on the scoreboard at the 7:50 mark as she scored her 22nd goal of the season off a cross by sophomore midfielder Lori Chalupny. Senior Maggie Tomecka, another Tar Heel named to the All-Tournament Team, also assisted on the goal. Tomecka gathered the ball in midfield and sent the ball to the left side to Chalupny who carried it deep into the penalty area before sending it to Tarpley at the far post.
In the 31st minute of play, Chalupny upped the Tar Heel lead to 2-0 as she tallied her 11th goal of the campaign, taking a cross from O'Reilly, and finishing from about seven yards out in front. After the ball had been pinged around the box, O'Reilly claimed possession on the right side and slotted a pass across the box to the onrushing Chalupny who slid in to finish the opportunity.
The Tar Heels exploded in a span of less than four minutes of the second half to put the game away. At 56:57, O'Reilly took a pass from Tarpley and sped up the left side of the pitch and then scored on a tough angle shot for her 15th goal of the year and seventh of the NCAA Tournament.
Less than two minutes later, Tarpley scored her second goal of the match and team-leading 23rd of the season as she tapped in a loose ball off a corner kick with assists by Tomecka and Ramsey. Ramsey's corner kick went far post to Tomecka who flicked it on to Tarpley who tapped the ball in off her left shin.
At 60:45, O'Reilly scored the 16th goal of her freshman year, her 11th goal of the postseason (three in the ACC Tournament, eight in the NCAA Tournament), with assists by Tarpley and Kendall Fletcher.
The final goal of the match was fittingly scored by senior forward Alyssa Ramsey who notched her 10th goal of the campaign, claiming a loose ball, and scoring into an empty net. Ramsey finished her career with 71 assists, one short of Mia Hamm's school record.
Seven Tar Heels overall were named to the All-Tournament Team--Lindsay Tarpley, Catherine Reddick, Heather O'Reilly, Lori Chalupny, Alyssa Ramsey, Carmen Watley and Maggie Tomecka.
