A promising season ended with a thud on Sunday afternoon at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, as UNC–the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament–was on the wrong end of a 2-1 upset against the Princeton Tigers.

The Tar Heels (17-3-2) outshot the Tigers by a margin of 24-9, and had not lost since September 7 against Penn State.

Princeton (16-2-1) managed to scrape together a pair of timely goals, however, in order to pull off the stunner.

In just the fourth minute of action on Sunday, UNC goalkeeper Samantha Leshnak came off her line to clear the ball–but her clearing attempt unluckily bounced off defender Taylor Otto and back into the net for an own goal.

After sophomore Bridgette Andrzejewski tied things up for the Tar Heels with a goal off a header in the 25th minute, neither team scored again until overtime.

The extra period again saw the Tigers take advantage of a miscue by Leshnak.

Princeton forward Abby Givens and UNC defender Lotte Wubben-Moy were engaged in a battle for possession, when Leshnak came out to try and stop the scoring opportunity.

Givens was able to avoid the clearance attempt, though, which allowed her to sneak the ball past Leshnak into the goal for the game-winner.

As a result, the longest national title drought in UNC women’s soccer history–one that dates to the old days of 2012–is guaranteed to last for at least one more year.

 

 

Photo via Jeffrey A. Camarati (UNC Athletics)

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