Women's Soccer USA

Coverage of women's soccer in the US. If it's not here...it's not important...

December 06, 2009

UNC 1, Stanford 0

That was certainly the feeling of North Carolina head coach Anson Dorrance and his senior-laden team after the third-ranked Tar Heels pitched a shutout at top-ranked Stanford Sunday afternoon, prevailing 1-0 in the 2009 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament championship game at Aggie Soccer Stadium before a stadium record crowd of 8,536.
The victory, powered by a goal by junior forward Jessica McDonald in the third minute of play, gave the Tar Heels their 20th NCAA title in the 28-year history of the NCAA Tournament, and Carolina's 21st championship in the sport overall when the 1981 AIAW title is included in the mix. UNC finished the season 23-3-1 overall and won the NCAA title with the fewest wins since the 2000 team won the title with a 21-3 mark. It was also the most losses UNC has had in an NCAA championship season since 2000 but those three regular-season losses and tie now seem like a distant memory to a team which ended the season on an 11-match winning skein.