Fotopoulos Is All Florida Needs for First Title

NCAA career leading scorer Danielle Fotopoulos scored on a direct kick less than six minutes into the match and Florida held off top-ranked North Carolina for a 1-0 victory Sunday in the NCAA women’s soccer championship.

Fotopoulos scored the only goal at the 5:23 mark, blasting a left-footed shot from the right side that sailed over a wall of Tar Heel defenders and hit the crossbar before dropping into the left side of the net.

“My adrenaline was pumping,” Fotopoulos said. “I stared at the ball and struck it as hard as I could, and it went right in.”

Second-ranked Florida (25-1-0) managed only five other shots on goal, being outshot, 21-6, by North Carolina (25-1-0).

Florida goalkeeper Meredith Flaherty, the tournament’s most outstanding defender, saved eight of North Carolina’s 21 shots.

It was the Gators’ first victory over North Carolina, having lost the previous five meetings, including a 2-1 defeat in October.

Fotopoulos was selected the tournament’s most outstanding offensive player and ended her career with 118 goals, including 32 this year.

“The ball she struck was hit about as hard as you can hit a soccer ball,” North Carolina Coach Anson Dorrance said. “That was a tremendously powerful strike. . . . It was a great strike.

Florida, in only its fourth year of women’s soccer, won the title in its first trip to the NCAA Final Four.

North Carolina, which has won 14 championships in the 17-year history of the NCAA Division I women’s soccer championship, lost for the first time in 71 matches, an unbeaten string dating to Oct. 4, 1996.

The Gators spent much of Sunday’s match on defense. But they disrupted North Carolina with intense physical play, committing 31 fouls to only four by North Carolina.

“We’re definitely a blue-collar, push-up-your-sleeves, work-hard kind of team,” said Florida Coach Becky Burleigh. “It wasn’t our game plan to go out and commit that many fouls, but we knew we had to go in hard for every ball.”