By R.L. Bynum

CARY — Olivia Thomas kicked in a sensational finish to North Carolina’s dream season, restoring the Tar Heels’ place as the queens of college soccer.

Thomas’ goal in the 62nd minute ended a 12-year drought to earn the 23rd national championship in program history as the No. 8-ranked Tar Heels earned a 1–0 victory over No. 3 Wake Forest in the championship battle of No. 2 seeds at the Women’s College Cup at WakeMed Soccer Park on Monday night.  

No. 23 has a legendary ring to it for the University of National Champions.

“What an amazing group of women that I’ve been fortunate to coach,” UNC coach Damon Nahas said. “I want to make sure and give thanks to Anson. He brought me here. He believed in me.”

Two years after a title was ripped away from the Tar Heels in heartbreaking fashion when it was 16 seconds away in a 3–2 overtime loss to UCLA on the same field, UNC (22–5) wouldn’t be denied this time. Seven players who endured that loss are on this championship team.

Taking over as interim head coach after Anson Dorrance’s August retirement, Nahas overcame many obstacles to lead UNC to its 22nd NCAA title to go along with an AIAW crown. It was a Herculean task to meet the program’s high standards, as he was without all but one starter from last season, had stars miss several games while competing for United States teams for numerous games and dealt with key injuries.

Nahas said Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham told him earlier Monday that the interim tag was coming off. Nahas said he didn’t tell his players until after the game.

“I didn’t want to tell them before, because it’s really not about me,” Nahas said. “I didn’t do this to get the job. I knew they would have been excited in their emotions, but I also didn’t want their emotion running so high [that it would] potentially distract from what we were trying to accomplish. I was just hopeful that we won it so I could share it with them in the moment.”

Dorrance watched the game from home but Nahas FaceTimed with his mentor from the field after the game.

After Thomas, a sophomore forward who missed eight games recovering from an injury, including the first Wake Forest game, couldn’t convert several good chances, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player bent a beautiful right-footed shot off a free kick over the Deacons’ wall from the left side and inside the far post in the 62nd minute to give UNC a 1–0 lead.

“I’m still really shocked; crazy moment,” Thomas said after scoring her ninth goal. “I’ve been working on it after practices after I embarrassed myself by skying it against Duke in the ACC semifinals. So, yes, I’ve been working on them a lot.”

Nahas quipped that her shot against Duke still was in the air.

Thomas’ four shots in the game were only three fewer than the entire Wake Forest team.

“It’s sad that Anson’s not here to accept this,” Wake Forest coach Tony da Luz said at his postgame press conference as the loud UNC celebration continued on the field. “I have total respect for him and what he’s done to build this program and put it where it is. And Damon has done a fantastic job with his team all season long.”

UNC took control of the game after halftime, showing the championship pedigree the program is known for. The Tar Heels had a commanding edge of 6–1 in shots after halftime, but the Deacons had 60% of the possession time in the game.

UNC goalie Clare Gagne, the Most Outstanding Defensive Player, made three saves to get her 12th shutout of the season.

Emerson Elgin, the only returning starter, played in that 2022 game and couldn’t help but think about it in the final minute.

“We had to throw it on our side and there’s about 38 seconds left, I was like, ‘Oh God,’ because two years ago, they scored on us,” Elgin said. “So, it was very anxiety-filling. But I think this team is so gritty, and we haven’t given up a lot of late goals. So I had confidence that we would win it. But you never know.”

Nahas remembers the heartbreak of two years ago very well.

“We’re never really comfortable until zeros on the block,” Nahas said. “We talked about anything that is potentially is a challenge for us, is something to motivate you.”

Carolina was fortunate to be in a scoreless draw at halftime after Wake Forest (16–4–4) carried the play with a 5–1 shot edge and got all three shots on goal, thanks to a couple of nice Gagne saves. However, UNC had chances late in the half.

Nahas said it was a quiet locker room at halftime.

“We talked a lot about how you feel comfortable being uncomfortable, and when you are under stress and all that kind of stuff, as you do and when you’re playing against a high-level team at this stage, it’s going to happen,” Nahas said. “I told them, number one, we wanted to raise your energy. I told them we won that first half. Wake Forest dominated us. We won being zero-zero. Being zero-zero at halftime was a win for us based on how the performance went.”

Gagne had to deal with two early good Deacons chances off the foot of former UNC forward Emily Murphy, first in the ninth minute with a stop on a shot to the right side. Then Gagne lunged quickly toward the ground to make a stop to her right on a Murphy shot six minutes later.  

“All the credit to my back line because I really didn’t have to do that much,” Gagne said.

Thomas was high with a shot on a partial breakaway in the 16th minute. She had another good chance foiled later in the half on Deacs defender Laurel Ansbrow’s nice tackle.

It was surreal for Thomas when she finally scored.

“It was just really crazy,” Thomas said. “I don’t know how to put it into words. In the moment, I blacked out. I told some people on the field who were interviewing me that I was singing songs in my head to get me through. I learned that when I was younger running the 400 just to sing songs to mask the pain. So I was just really fighting. And I was like, ‘oh gosh, I gotta score this, so I can do it.’ “

Thomas just missed wide on an early second-half close chance as, early in the second half, UNC created some midfield turnovers but few chances. 

“I thought we did everything but win the game,” said da Luz, whose team lost to Carolina by the same score during the regular season. “We moved the ball as well as we have all year long. We weren’t precise enough to get the goal, and that’s the way it is.”

NOTES — It was UNC’s 28th NCAA championship game appearance and 32nd Women’s College Cup appearance. No other school has advanced to more than 14. … Nahas is the fourth UNC first-year coach to win an NCAA title after Dave Karmann (men’s lacrosse in 1991), Carlos Somoano (men’s soccer in 2011) and Erin Matson (field hockey in 2023). … UNC’s Bella Gaetino drew a yellow card in the 19th minute. … Trinity Armstrong and Linda Ullmark joined Thomas and Gagne on the all-tournament team. … UNC women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart was at the game. … UNC has 22 of the 43 NCAA titles, is 153–18–5 all-time in the NCAA tournament and 22–5–1 in the championship game. …This was the sixth time in 13 tournaments as a No. 2 seed that the Tar Heels have won the title. … UNC, which won the regular-season meeting 1–0, leads the series with Wake Forest 36–2–3, including 5–0 in NCAA tournament games. …This is UNC’s 21st season with at least 22 victories. … It was the first national championship match appearance in Wake Forest program history. … It was a packed stadium of 9,475 fans. … UNC is the first champion to hold an opponent scoreless in regulation in a final since Florida State’s 1–0 win over Carolina in 2018. … Carolina is the first champion to get outshot in both Women’s College Cup games since Southern Cal in 2016.

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No. 8 UNC 1, No. 3 Wake Forest 0

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Date	Month/day	Time/ score	Opponent	TV/ record
	August
14	Thursday	L, 2–0	at Tennessee	0–1
17	Sunday	W, 5–0	vs. Siena	1–1
21	Thursday	6:30	at Georgia	SECN+
24	Sunday	Noon	vs. Rice	ACCNE
28	Thursday	4 p.m.	vs. UNCG	ACCNE
31	Sunday	Noon	vs. Wisc.-Milwaukee
	September
4	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Alabama
7	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. James Madison
11	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Virginia Tech
17	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ACCN
25	Thursday	6 p.m.	At Notre Dame	ACCN
	October
2	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Boston College	ACCN
5	Sunday	4 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh
12	Sunday	1 p.m.	at Duke	ESPNU
17	Friday	6 p.m.	at SMU
23	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Miami
26	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Syracuse
30	Thursday	8 p.m.	vs. N.C. State	ACCN
	November		ACC tournament
2	Sunday		First round: Campus sites
6, 9	Thurs., Sun.	W, 2–1	Semifinals, final: Cary
			NCAA tournament
13	Thursday		First round Campus sites
	December	Women’s College Cup
5, 8	Fri., Mon.		CPKC Stadium Kansas City

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics