Tar Heels Capture 21st NCAA Title

The UNC Tar Heels struck quickly to take a 1-0 first-half lead in the Division I women’s College Cup championship game, played before a crowd of 6,930 fans at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego.

They also struck quickly in the second half to start a three-goal outburst that put away their first national championship since the 2009 season.

UNC simply wore down Penn State with a strong effort from the Tar Heel bench. The 4-1 victory marked the program’s 22nd national title and its 21st NCAA championship.

“We’re absolutely ecstatic,” said UNC coach Anson Dorrance, who has coached the Tar Heels to every win and every championship in the program’s history.

“The classic question you get is ‘Does it ever get old?’ I’d say it gets better.”

The Tar Heels have never gone three seasons without winning the national championship. The first came in 1982, the first year the NCAA held a national championship for women.

This year UNC was a #2 seed, but beat three #1 seeds to win the championship.

UNC finished the year with a 15-5-3 overall record. No Tar Heel team had ever lost five games and still won a national title. UNC finished the ACC regular season in a four-way tie for second place with a 6-3-1 legue mark. They lost 1-0 in the first round of the conference tournament to Virginia.

But UNC came on strong in the NCAAs! The Tar Heels beat Baylor in the round of 16 in a shootout after a scoreless tie, and then beat BYU and defending national champion Stanford in double overtime games to reach the title match.

Kealia Ohai, the tournament’s Offensive MVP, gave North Carolina a 1-0 lead at 1:11 in the opening half. Penn State tied it in the 19th minute on a goal from Taylor Schram.

The game-winner came 48 seconds into the second half when defender Hanna Gardner got on the end of a Katie Bowen corner kick and headed it into the goal. Satara Murray, the tournament’s Outstanding Defensive Player, and Ranee Premji put the game away with two more goals. For Murray it was her first of the season.

Penn State, the Big Ten champions, reached the championship game for the first time by defeating Florida State 2-1 in overtime, and finished the year with a 24-4-2 record.