Few people would have been surprised if North Carolina didn’t win last year’s NCAA championship. The Tar Heels admittedly didn’t have the best talent and endured injury problems. But they overcame these obstacles to beat Notre Dame, 2-0, for their 15th NCAA championship. Each time North Carolina has been dethroned, it’s recovered to regain the title.
North Carolina gained revenge for its loss to Notre Dame in 1995, winning the following year on a Debbie Keller golden goal.
1986. North Carolina won the AIWA title in 1981 and the first three NCAA championships (1982-84) but lost, 2-0, in the 1985 NCAA final to host George Mason in Fairfax, Va.
“Back in those days, there was a whole collection of teams that were our nemeses,” North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. “Originally, it was Central Florida [and Michelle Akers], then it evolved into George Mason. And George Mason was just a tremendous opponent.”
Indeed, Mason’s collection of stars rivaled those of UNC. Forward Lisa Gmitter led the cast, which included defender Betsy Drambour and goalkeeper Kim Maslin. All three later played for the national team under Dorrance.
In ’85, UNC was a team in transition. Gone was the leadership of nine players who had won four titles. The loss of Emily Pickering, Carolina’s midfield general, was especially troubling.
“We weren’t as dominant mentally as in the past,” long-time UNC assistant coach Bill Palladino said. “The seniors that year had been led all their career and never really developed any real strong leadership qualities.”
UNC’s leadership vacancy was filled in ’86. April Heinrichs and Marcia McDermott were now seniors, and Wendy Gebauer and Tracey Bates had a year of collegiate experience under their belts. Freshman Carla Werden (now Carla Overbeck), the future U.S. captain, solidified the defense and gave Dorrance another strong leader on the field. Playmaking freshman Shannon Higgins, who like Heinrichs, Werden, Gebauer and Bates would go on to play on the 1991 U.S. World Cup championship team, finally gave Carolina a replacement for Pickering.
“They just sort of perpetuated a leadership mentality on that team,” Palladino said. “Anson and I learned a huge lesson from that, too. You don’t always need the best players, but players who could gel your team together.”
UNC returned to Fairfax and beat Colorado College, 2-0, for the ’86 championship. In fact, after the ’85 final, Carolina didn’t lose another game for five years, until it lost to Connecticut, 3-2, in 1990.
A switch in defensive tactics
1996. Problems in midfield and complacency doomed Carolina in ’95.
As in ’85, Carolina was in a transition year. The entire 1994 midfield of Tisha Venturini, Keri Sanchez, Angela Kelly and Danielle Egan was gone. The loss of Venturini, UNC’s playmaker of the early 1990s, hurt the most. To this day, Carolina hasn’t been able to replace Venturini in the middle.
Still, UNC was perfect that season, at 25-0-0, until the NCAA semifinal match against Notre Dame. The Irish controlled the tempo early on and later forced Carolina into a mistake. Cindy Parlow tried to clear a Cindy Daws header but headed in an own goal over stunned keeper Tracy Noonan (now Tracy Ducar).
Dorrance took care not to criticize Parlow. Rather he blamed himself for not driving his team hard enough because it was a young team that overachieved.
“We felt we had a wonderful team that year,” Dorrance said. “I was so excited by how well we did, celebrating our improvement, I let us get soft.”
The emergence of Notre Dame also affected Carolina off the field. Dorrance says the aggressive recruiting by then-Irish coach Chris Petrucelli lit a fire under him.
“He started working his rear end off, all over the country, finding hidden players,” Dorrance said. “He forced me to try and match him.”
Dorrance put together an amazing class in ’96, nabbing midfielders Laurie Schwoy and Rebekah McDowell and defender Lorrie Fair.
Schwoy and McDowell gave the Heels an answer to Notre Dame’s Cindy Daws, Holly Manthei and Shannon Boxx in the middle. An improved Tiffany Roberts caused the Irish headaches on the flanks.
The biggest key, though, was Palladino’s switch from a man-to-man marking defense with a sweeper to a flat back four playing a zonal defense.
The new defense – played to perfection by Fair, Staci Wilson and final four MVP Nel Fettig – gave the Irish fewer scoring chances than they had the year before.
Debbie Keller hit her golden goal to give Carolina the title.
Replacing Parlow, Roberts and Mullinix
1999. The Tar Heels lost to Florida in the ’98 championship and were forced to make personnel changes the following season. Starters Parlow, Roberts and Siri Mullinix – all members of the U.S. national team – and key reserve Rakel Karvelsson ended their college careers on a losing note thanks to a goal by Danielle Fotopoulos.
The loss didn’t necessitate any tactical changes. As well as Florida played in that match, Carolina was the better team.
“I’m never embarrassed to salute Danielle Fotopoulos,” Dorrance said. “She’s a wonderful champion, and Meredith Flaherty in goal, she played brilliantly. And a gritty Florida team played as hard as they could. Those things are going to happen. We credit Florida, and we respect them. But we had no qualms with that loss, and we didn’t feel we had to change anything.”
Finding new talent has always been an important part of the Carolina dominance, more so in recent years. Dorrance admits his recruiting suffered one year in the late ’90s because he was too busy trying to get a women’s professional league, the National Soccer Alliance, off the ground.
“I won’t tell you what year that is,” Dorrance said, “but there were actually a couple of years where I couldn’t go to any [youth] tournaments because I didn’t have time. I spent a two-year stretch making 1,000 mistakes with the pro league. I’m a soccer coach. I had no idea how to organize a pro league.”
Efforts to start the NSA finally collapsed in ’97, the same year Dorrance’s only major recruit was forward Meredith Florance.
Enter Chris Ducar. Dorrance hired Ducar, Noonan’s husband, as a full-time assistant coach in ’98 to coach the keepers and serve as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
“My recruiting effort improved incredibly,” Dorrance said. “Now we’re much more thorough.”
Chris Ducar was the first full-time assistant in UNC history. Palladino, who works with the defense and runs Dorrance’s offseason camps, is paid through the camps, not through the university.
Even with Ducar, UNC’s recruiting efforts could have suffered a major hit in ’98 and ’99. Former players Keller and Melissa Jennings dropped a bombshell with a sexual harassment lawsuit against Dorrance, the university and various school officials, including the Ducars. The case is still pending.
But UNC put together a strong recruiting class last year, led by forwards Susan Bush and Kim Patrick and goalkeeper Jenni Branam. Bush said she considered the controversy but wanted to play for Dorrance.
The recruits helped Carolina get past a slew of injuries in ’99. The final – a 2-0 win over Notre Dame – capped Dorrance’s favorite moment as UNC coach. “I thought we were third-best team in the country in August [of ’99],” Dorrance said. “Santa Clara was better, and Notre Dame was better. And we had the injuries. But my team played tremendously in the NCAA tournament and played particularly well in the final. For all those different reasons, I was proud of last year’s team.”
by Soccer America associate editor Dean Caparaz