UCLA ends Tar Heels' season in double overtime

A team dressed in blue celebrated a golden goal 1-0 victory in double overtime with wild exuberance on Fetzer Field Saturday night.

It was not North Carolina.

All season UNC had been knocked down — injuries to its leading scorer, suffered only their second loss by more than one goal in 690 games.

But the Tar Heels always got back up. This time the knockdown became a knockout.

This time the Tar Heels watched UCLA dog pile after cementing its place in the College Cup, while UNC players sat in various stages of sadness and shock in realization that their season had come to an abrupt end.

UCLA’s Taylor Smith scored the game-winner in the second minute of the second overtime period. After she received a through ball from her teammate, Smith fired a shot that was saved by UNC goalkeeper Anna Sieloff. But Sieloff was unable to secure the ball, and as it dribbled away from her hands, she and Smith entered a footrace for the rebound .

Smith won.

And from three yards away Smith finished the shot, the game, and UNC’s season all in one fell swoop.

Coach Anson Dorrance said when it comes down to a scramble like that in front of the goal, it can go either way.

“Sometimes the ball bounces your way sometimes it doesn’t,” Dorrance said, “Obviously the UCLA kid fought like a lioness to put that thing in.”

The teams played to a draw for nearly 100 minutes when a major collision occurred at midfield. UNC sophomore Katie Bowen looked like she received the worst of it, and was down on the field for an extended amount of time. Senior Kealia Ohai said seeing her teammate get hurt like that was hard, but it didn’t change the task at hand.

“You have to come out on the field and be prepared for anything,” Ohai said, “and we can’t look at that and blame it on that, or use that as an excuse.

“You have to come out and play in the second overtime.”

UNC came out ready to play, but UCLA was more ready, capitalizing on what may have been its best look at the goal all night.

Senior Crystal Dunn, who led UNC in scoring this season and scored the game-winner against UCLA in a regular season game earlier this year, didn’t play her usual minutes due to a lower leg injury. She was almost at a loss for words when she tried to put the game in perspective.

“I instantly just thought about the whole journey up until right now, it’s been a great four years,” Dunn said. “Just to go out like that is kind of, it’s very upsetting.”

Dorrance, the man who has stacked national championships while at UNC, said afterwards that he had recently been reading a book about how difficult it is to win in the game of soccer.

Picasso couldn’t paint a more perfect picture of irony.

And Saturday night, that picture came to life.

sports@dailytarheel.com