UCLA Falls in Final

Notre Dame stood in the way of UCLA’s making history Sunday, but as a tense NCAA women’s soccer championship match couldn’t be decided in 110 minutes at Cary, N.C., the Bruins would find that it was really Fighting Irish goalkeeper Erika Bohn who would deny them a place at the top of the sport.

Bohn made a critical save on a penalty kick late in regulation and then duplicated the feat in sudden-death penalty kicks, stopping Lindsay Greco’s attempt to give Notre Dame a 4-3 edge on penalties, and earn the Irish their second national title in front of 7,644 at SAS Soccer Complex. The teams were tied, 1-1, after 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime.

UCLA, which finished with an 18-7-0 record, failed to win its first championship in its third College Cup appearance, and the school could not add to its NCAA-record 95 national titles. Meanwhile, Notre Dame (25-1-1) joined North Carolina as the only schools with multiple women’s soccer titles.

“It’s tough to swallow because we came so close,” UCLA midfielder Jill Oakes said. “Today, the game was sort of in the hands of fate; a silly goal against Notre Dame and we were up, a silly foul on our side for them to get a penalty kick and we were tied.”

UCLA got a major break in the 60th minute when Irish defender Gudrun Gunnarsdottir, under some pressure from Iris Mora, sent the ball back past Bohn into the Notre Dame net.

Notre Dame, which pressured UCLA throughout the match, set up a scoring opportunity when forward Katie Thorlakson was taken down in the 18-yard penalty box by Mary Castelanetti in the 74th minute. Thorlakson converted the penalty kick.

Both teams were stopped in the final minutes of regulation, but it was Bohn’s save on Kendal Billingsley’s penalty kick in the 84th minute that kept the Irish alive. Billingsley took a sharp right-footed shot to the right side of the goal, and Bohn, fully outstretched to her left, knocked the ball away.

“They obviously did their homework on us,” UCLA Coach Jillian Ellis said. “Kendal made contact with it and [Bohn] obviously had a good sense of where it was going.”

After overtime, Valerie Henderson made an early save on Thorlakson’s penalty kick to swing the momentum toward the Bruins. But UCLA’s Brynn McGrath then missed wide, Notre Dame made its next three and Bohn stopped Kim Devine.

After UCLA’s Danesha Adams scored, Henderson made a big save on Christie Shaner to send it to sudden death. The freshman couldn’t stop Jill Krivacek’s try and Bohn came up with her stop on Greco to set off the Irish celebration.

“Basically, we have been practicing penalty kicks toward the end of the season,” Bohn said. “Luckily, I picked the right side every time.”