JESSE PORTER/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Goalkeeper
CiCi Peterson (left) is comforted by
Tracey Milburn after the Bruins’ heart-wrenching
2-1 loss to North Carolina in the College Cup final on Sunday. NCAA
Championship North Carolina 2 UCLA 1
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor
SAN JOSE ““ For 21 minutes in the national championship
game, the UCLA women’s soccer team led the most storied
program in history.
As time expired, however, the scoreboard read 2-1, the Bruins
had lost their first NCAA title game, and North Carolina had won
its 17th before 9,566 at Spartan Stadium.
The Tar Heels (21-3-0) controlled the tempo of the first half
and took the Bruins out of their game. Bruin goalkeeper CiCi
Peterson was forced to make three tough saves, and freshman
defender Kathryn Lee made two goal-saving slide tackles. The Tar
Heels outshot UCLA 5-1 and had seven corner kicks to the
Bruins’ zero.
The Bruin offensive attack looked anemic at best, as four or
five Tar Heel defenders frequently snuffed out any possible scoring
opportunities. The first 45 minutes were a shock to a Bruin squad
that had not been outshot all season.
“It was tough for us to play the way we like to play
because of the great pressure Carolina had us under,” said
UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis.
And then it happened.
 JESSE PORTER/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Stephanie
Rigamat attempts to dribble past a North Carolina defender
in the second half of the Bruins’ loss on Sunday. Less than 10
minutes into the second half, the ubiquitous Stephanie Rigamat
dribbled along the right sideline in a rare sustained possession
and lofted a crossing pass that North Carolina goalkeeper Jenni
Branam came out to contest.
Unbeknownst to Branam, defender Catherine Reddick was nearby and
the two collided. UCLA freshman Lindsay Greco was there waiting and
sent the ball into the net.
UCLA had the lead and was just 27 minutes from the national
title.
At the television timeout, Ellis told her players they had a
choice.
“What I told them was, “˜You can either thrive or
survive, and if we just play to survive we’re not going to
get it done,'” she said.
Despite Ellis’ warning, the tide began to turn, as North
Carolina started to control possession once again as the Bruin
midfield labored. At the 75:11 mark, all of the Tar Heel chances
finally culminated in a goal by Meredith Florance. The game was
tied and the Bruins were tired.
Just over seven minutes later, a rocket shot from Catherine
Reddick soared across the box and grazed off of Bruin defender
Krista Boling’s calf and into the net. The official ruling
was an “own goal,” and the Bruins couldn’t tie up
the game.
The Tar Heel dynasty won again. North Carolina head coach Anson
Dorrance attributed the comeback victory to superior fitness.
“I’m convinced that our kids are the
best-conditioned kids that play,” he said. “The longer
the game wore on, our fitness kicked in and we became
dominant.”
To reach the title game, the Bruins knocked off another one of
the elite women’s soccer programs when they blanked Portland
1-0 on Friday.
UCLA looked nervous and flustered from the outset, as its
possession game was unable to find a flow for the first 20
minutes.
At 16:45, Peterson blocked a rocket of a shot from close range,
but allowed the rebound to get away. A Pilot attacker pounced on
the free ball and fired it at the net, where midfielder Bethany
Bogart, the last line of the Bruin defense, blocked the shot.
At that point, Ellis switched things up, putting another player
in the middle, Venus James, and making several front-line
substitutions. Bruin freshman Sarah-Gayle Swanson had the first
real scoring chance with 14:15 left in the half. Junior Staci
Duncan dribbled around two Pilot defenders and sent a pass to
Swanson, who volleyed it off the crossbar.
As the halftime break began, Ellis wrote one word on the board:
momentum.
“They had it in the first twenty minutes, we had it in the
last twenty minutes of the first half,” Ellis said. “I
told them whoever finishes with more momentum will win this game.
It’s kind of stating the obvious, but I think emotionally you
have to dig deep.”
With just over 13 minutes left in the game, UCLA’s emotion
finally got them on the scoreboard. Swanson passed the ball to
James, who sent a crisp crossing pass into the middle of the box.
Waiting there was Rigamat, who headed the ball past Portland goalie
Cheryl Loveless for the only goal of the game.
“I wasn’t doing well with my feet because it was so
wet and slick so I figured I might as well get it done with the
header,” Rigamat said.
Despite the loss to the Tar Heels, a bevy of talent in this
year’s recruiting class and the confidence instilled in the
youthful program mean UCLA isn’t likely to go away any time
soon.
“I’m proud of my team, and what I told them at the
end of the game is the same thing I told them last year after we
lost to Santa Clara in the third round ““ that we will all
continue to work hard and that next year we’ll be back
winning,” Ellis said.