Dec. 6, 2008

CARY, N.C. - The fourth-ranked University of North Carolina women's soccer team will be shooting for its 19th NCAA championship and its 100th NCAA Tournament victory at the same time Sunday when Head Coach Anson Dorrance's Tar Heels meet No. 1-ranked and undefeated and untied Notre Dame at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The national championship game will be televised live at 2 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com and a limited number of walk-up tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the WakeMed Soccer Park box office.

UNC advanced to the championship game with a 1-0 victory over No. 2-ranked UCLA Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park. The win improved the Tar Heels to 24-1-2 overall, including a record of 20-0-1 in its last 21 matches. The Fighting Irish defeated No. 5 Stanford 1-0 Friday night and they will carry an unblemished 26-0-0 mark in the final game.

2008 NCAA Women's College Cup Championship Game Notes

•NCAA Tournament Quick Facts About UNC Women's Soccer
•North Carolina has now advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament for the 22nd time in the 27-year history of the tournament.
•The Tar Heels will be seeking their 19th NCAA championship when they meet Notre Dame on Sunday at 2 p.m.
•Carolina is 18-3 in its previous 21 NCAA championship game appearances.
•Friday's win over UCLA improved Carolina's all-time record in NCAA semifinal games to 22-2.
•Carolina will be seeking its 100th all-time NCAA Tournament victory in Sunday's championship game. UNC is 99-7-1 in all-time NCAA matches, a winning percentage of .930.
•In 107 NCAA Tournament matches UNC has outscored its opponents 376-58.
•Carolina is 81-4-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in the state of North Carolina.

•The Tar Heels in Cary
•Carolina is 15-1-1 all-time in games played at WakeMed Soccer Park, including 5-0 in NCAA Tournament games.

•The Win Over UCLA
•With the NCAA semifinal win over UCLA, Carolina improved to 7-0 all-time against the Bruins, including a 4-0 record in NCAA Tournament games.

•Averbuch's Penalty Kick Goal
•Carolina attempted its first penalty kick of the season Friday with Yael Averbuch converting on it to provide the winning margin in the 1-0 win over UCLA.
•It was only the second penalty kick attempt in a UNC game this season. The other was in the season's opening game when Charlotte converted on one in a 5-1 loss to UNC.
•Prior to Averbuch's PK goal, the last time UNC had a penalty kick attempt was November 24, 2007 when Allie Long scored on a PK early in the second half of a 3-2 loss to Notre Dame in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

•Carolina Versus Notre Dame
•The Tar Heels are 9-4-2 all-time against Notre Dame.
•The Fighting Irish have won two in a row against the Tar Heels. Notre Dame defeated UNC 3-2 in the NCAA Tournament third round at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill on November 24, 2007. Earlier this year, on September 5, the Fighting Irish defeated the Tar Heels at Fetzer Field 1-0 in the Carolina Nike Classic.
•Carolina had won five in a row over the Irish dating back to 1998 prior to its back-to-back losses.
•This will be the 16th overall meeting between the two teams and the eighth meeting between the squads in NCAA Tournament play.
•Carolina is 5-2 against the Irish in games in the NCAA Tournament.
•Carolina is 2-3 against Notre Dame in games played in the state of North Carolina and 1-0 against the Fighting Irish in Cary.
•Notre Dame is trying to become only the second college team in history to beat the Tar Heels in three straight games. Santa Clara won three in a row over the Tar Heels in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

•Averbuch's 105th Successive Start
•Yael Averbuch will start her 105th successive game Sunday in the NCAA championship game versus Notre Dame. She has never missed a game in a UNC uniform and has started every game in a Tar Heel uniform.
•She holds the UNC record for career games started but will fall two games short of the Tar Heel and NCAA record for games played set by Robin Confer (1994-97) with 107.

•Shooting for a 25-Win Season
•North Carolina heads into the Notre Dame game with a record of 24-1-2. A victory would give the Tar Heels a 25-win season for the ninth time in school history. •UNC currently has five 25-win seasons in its history as well as three 27-win seasons.

•About the Defense
•UNC has shutout 17 of its 27 opponents this season. However, only nine of those shutouts came in the opening 18 games of the season. In the last nine games of the season, UNC has recorded eight clean sheets.
•Heading into the Notre Dame game, Carolina has allowed only one goal over the last 863 minutes and 15 seconds of play.
•Texas A&M, in a 2-1 NCAA quarterfinal loss to the Tar Heels, is the only team to score against UNC since October 30.
•The starting defensive back line of juniors Whitney Engen and Kristi Eveland and sophomore Rachel Givan have played the last 1,031 minutes in succession.
•The trio has played every minute in each of the last 11 Tar Heel games beginning with the match at Virginia on October 24.

•Miscellaneous All-Time Facts
•The Tar Heels enter the Notre Dame game with an all-time record of 672-33-21, a winning percentage just a shade over .940.
•The Tar Heels have won 99 games in the NCAA Tournament heading into the match against Notre Dame on Sunday.
•North Carolina has outscored its opponents 2,949 to 346 in 726 games since the institution of the program in 1979. That is an all-time scoring margin of 2,603 goals.

•Currently Streaking
•The Tar Heels have gone unbeaten in their last 21 matches, posting a record of 20-0-1 since playing to a 1-1 tie at Stanford on September 12, 2008.
•The only blemish on the Tar Heel ledger since then was a 2-2 tie with Florida State on October 30.

•On The Career Charts
•Casey Nogueira is in a tie for 25th place in career points at UNC with 99. Yael Averbuch is in a tie for 32nd place in career points at UNC with 93.
•Casey Nogueira is in a tie for 18th place in career goals at UNC with 40. Yael Averbuch is in a tie for 27th place in career goals with 32.

•Carolina's Average Year-by-Year Record
•In 30 years of varsity play, UNC is 672-33-21, an average record per year of 22.4 wins, 1.1 losses and 0.7 ties.

•Back-To-Back Games Against Higher Ranked Teams for the First Time in NCAA Play
•This is the first time in UNC's history that it has played back-to-back games against teams ranked higher than it in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll. UNC is ranked fourth in that poll. UCLA is ranked second and Notre Dame first.