Dec. 6, 2002

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AUSTIN, TEXAS - Despite a furious second half rally, second-ranked North Carolina was defeated by fourth-ranked Santa Clara 2-1 in the semifinals of the NCAA Women's College Cup Friday night at Mike Myers Stadium on the University of Texas campus. The game was played before a crowd of 10,040 fans.

Santa Clara jumped on top of the Tar Heels by a 2-0 score on Veronica Zepeda's second goal of the match in the 72nd minute before the Heels poured on the pressure in the game's final 20 minutes only to fall agoal short. UNC controlled play much of the night and outshot the Broncos 19-5 but only five of UNC's 19 shots were actually on goal and that fact hurt the Tar Heels in the end.

The Broncos advance to the national championship where the Broncos will meet seventh-ranked Portland Sunday at 2 p.m. CST. It is only the second time that those two schools have made the NCAA Tournament final. Santa Clara is in the final for the second straight year after beating UNC 1-0 last season. Portland reached the final in 1995 losing in triple overtime to Notre Dame 1-0.

The loss marked only the second time the Tar Heels have lost in an NCAA semifinal game in the 21-year history of the tournament. The only other time was 1995 when Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 1-0 in the NCAA semifinals at Chapel Hill. UNC is now 19-2 in NCAA semifinal matches, having played in all 21 NCAA semifinals every played. It was only the fifth NCAA Tournament loss in history for the Tar Heels. UNC has won 16 championships, lost in the final three times and now lost in the semifinals twice.

Santa Clara scored on its first and only shot of the first half as the Bronocs capitalized on a failed UNC clearance from the defensive end of the field to score at 9:30 of the match. The goal came off the foot of Veronica Zepeda, her sixth goal of the season, assisted by Devvyn Hawkins and Bree Horvath. Santa Clara's goal came on the first shot of the match and the Broncos improved to 17-0-1 on the season when scoring the first goal of the match. UNC fell to 4-2-1 on the campaign when allowing the first goal of the match.

UNC then controlled play most of the rest of the first half and ended up with a 9-1 advantage in total shots. However, only three of the Tar Heels' shots were on goal, as Santa Clara goalkeeper Alyssa Sobolik stopped two shots and another sure Tar Heel goal was saved off the line by a Santa Clara defender. That shot came off the head of forward Anne Morrell as she took a feed from Sara Randolph and beat Sobolik only to see the shot saved just inches short of the goal line.

UNC was held off the scoreboard for the first time in the first half since the Tar Heels were blanked in the first 45 minutes by Duke on October 27. Carolina fell to 3-2-1 on the season when trailing at halftime.

Santa Clara came out far more aggressively in the second half and controlled a good portion of the play. Eventually the Broncos netted their second goal as Zepeda scored her second goal of the match and seventh of the season as she pounced on a loose ball in the Tar Heel penalty box and scored from about 15 yards out.

After the Broncos went ahead 2-0, the Tar Heels elevated their game and were able to score once but not twice down the stretch. After Santa Clara's second goal the Tar Heels outshot the Broncos the rest of the way 7-0.

Carolina did get on the board at 78:34 when Lindsay Tarpley scored on a rebound of an initial shot by Catherine Reddick. The goal was Tarpley's 16th of her freshman season, the second highest total on the UNC team.

Carolina finished the 2002 season with a record of 21-2-4 while Santa Clara improved to 20-4-1.