The North Carolina women’s soccer team surrendered only one goal in this year’s NCAA tournament. That was all it took to end the Tar Heels’ bid to win its first national championship since 2012. West Virginia’s Michaela Abram ended UNC’s five-game shutout streak by scoring an unassisted goal in the 74th minute that send the top-ranked Mountaineers to a 1-0 victory in the NCAA national semifinals in San Jose, Calif. Abram took advantage of UNC’s inability to clear the box after a corner kick and put a perfectly placed shot into the top of the net just beyond the outreached hand of goalie Lindsey Harris. The Tar Heels, who were held without a shot in the first half, had several chances to get an equalizer and send the game into overtime. But both Bridgette Andrzejewski and Madison Schultz had shots sail over the net and Megan Buckingham barely missed putting shot inside the near post, allowing West Virginia to hold on for the victory. The Mountaineers will play Southern Cal for the title on Saturday. UNC. meanwhile, ends its season at 17-4-4. The loss was doubly disappointing for a senior class that becomes the first since the program started in 1982 not to win a national championship. While the Tar Heel women fell short of their goal, their counterparts on the men’s team are still alive thanks to a 1-0 overtime victory against Providence that sends them to next week’s Final Four in Houston. Junior Drew Murphy, who played in only six games during the regular season because of injury and was pressed into service because of an injury to star midfielder Cam Lindley earlier in the game, blasted a high shot off the hand of Friars’ goalie Colin Miller for the game-winner.”It’s all kind of a blur,” Murphy said. “The ball came in to me. I’m left-footed and it was kind of just like close my eyes and just shoot.”Murphy called his perfectly placed blast from just outside the box “the best moment of my life.” It provided a happy ending on a night that saw UNC outshoot PC 16-6 and limit the Friars to only a handful of legitimate scoring chances.
