Santa Clara's preparation leads to upset

The fans were gone, the scoreboard was off, and just a few Santa Clara players remained on Fetzer Field.

Above the quiet murmur of parents congratulating Santa Clara players, a voice could be heard screaming into a cell phone in the stands.

"We won," said Bronco defender Catherine Sigler. "I swear to God to you, I'm not lying."

Sigler was part of a Bronco defense that shut out North Carolina and stunned the Tar Heels 1-0 in overtime Saturday.

Santa Clara broke UNC's 49-game winning streak and now has won four of its last five meetings with UNC, including a 2-1 victory in the 2002 NCAA Tournament semifinals.

The last time the Tar Heels were shut out was Sept. 10, when UNC played to a scoreless draw against then-No. 15 Tennessee.

The Tar Heels had plenty of opportunities to score against the Broncos, yet Santa Clara defenders were constantly swarming the ball. Goalkeeper Julie Ryder made some brilliant diving saves, recording nine stops.

"They've got a good team, and they organized themselves well," said UNC coach Anson Dorrance. "Even the times we got in, it was hard for us to finish, and that's a great credit to the Santa Clara coaching staff and their players."

The victory against the No. 1 team in the nation didn't come without practice. The Broncos spent the entire week before the game preparing to meet the Tar Heels.

Santa Clara coach Jerry Smith said his team had a film session Nov. 14 after defeating No. 18 Stanford in double overtime that same day.

"We prepared Sunday night and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday," Smith said. "You have to do a very thorough job of preparing if you're going to beat Carolina, and we had that this week."

Smith said his team specifically focused on creating opportunities to score against the potent Tar Heel defense.

"We also talked a lot about one of the ways we could break down what they tried to do, and that was Megan Kakadelas getting the ball in behind their defense," Smith said. "It was a strategy from the get-go. We had the first shot in the game, and it was Megan Kakadelas behind their defense."

Smith said his players knew they wouldn't get many scoring chances against UNC but that when they did, they needed to make them count.

"We trained a lot this week on Tina (Estrada) getting the ball short and Megan running behind her in that space," Smith said. "That's the one thing we trained on all week long. That's what worked for us today."

The Broncos also were playing with a chip on their shoulders because even though they were ranked fourth in the nation, they were seeded 16th in the tournament.

Smith said his team used the arguably unfair seeding for extra motivation against the Tar Heels.

"I don't think you need anything extra in terms of motivation when you're in the tournament," Smith said. "I don't think you need anything extra in terms of motivation when you play Carolina. But the NCAA gave it to us, and we took advantage of it."

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.