BYU stuns North Carolina in come-from-behind victory to return to College Cup
On a snowy night in Provo, BYU got its first ever victory over North Carolina, scoring a flurry of goals when it mattered most to pull off an improbable 4-3 comeback victory that will go down as one of the most memorable wins in program history.
The No. 1 seeded Cougars defeated No. 3 seed North Carolina on three goals in the final 10 minutes of the match, ultimately leading for just over a minute and a half in front of a frenzied South Field crowd.
“What an amazing game,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “To have North Carolina here playing on South field is quite an honor … The start of the game wasn’t quite what we anticipated. … (I’m) just really proud of the way that these girls played, especially in the second half.”
North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance, in his 47th year at North Carolina, perhaps summed things up best.
“I’ve never seen that in my life,” he said. “That was just an extraordinary comeback for a great team. They came after us.”
BYU entered Friday’s Elite Eight matchup with North Carolina following its 3-1 triumph over Michigan State last Saturday at South Field. It scored all three of those goals in the second half.
Again, the goals did not come until the second half against the Tar Heels. The Cougars scored all four of their goals on Friday in the final 30 minutes.
Coming off a Sweet 16 victory over Big 12 regular season champion and No. 2 seed Texas Tech Sunday in Lubbock, North Carolina traveled to Provo for its third meeting all time with BYU.
The Tar Heels won their two previous meetings with the Cougars, eliminating the Provo school from the NCAA Tournament in 2012 at South Field and again in 2022 in Chapel Hill.
In the first half, Friday’s game looked like it would end in another loss for BYU, which fell behind 3-0 20 minutes after the first whistle.
North Carolina scored its initial goal on a corner kick taken by redshirt sophomore midfielder Ally Sentnor in the second minute. She found redshirt senior defender Maycee Bell for a header that arced into the top corner of the goal.
Moments later, Sentnor again found the back of the net, shooting in front of the goal from 18 yards out in the ninth minute.
And Sentnor still wasn’t done. She scored on a set piece just outside the top corner of the box in the 20th minute.
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Still, to the Cougars credit, they never felt like they were out of it.
“I don’t think we ever got to a point where we were like, ‘We’re not coming back from this,’” BYU senior defender Laveni Vaka said. “This team has so much grit and so much passion.”
That grit and passion propelled the Cougars to do something that looked nearly impossible at the half.
Coming into the match, North Carolina had not allowed a shot on goal through two straight rounds of the tournament. BYU ultimately shattered that trend.
The Cougars got on the board in the 61st minute on a ball that rattled around the box before senior midfielder Bella Folino got control of it, drilling in BYU’s first goal.
“We felt like we had turned the momentum around towards the end of the first half,” Rockwood said. “You could see the momentum shifting throughout the second half.”
BYU kept the momentum but wouldn’t score again until the 81st minute when senior forward Brecken Mozingo bent a corner kick that ricocheted off a Tar Heel into the goal and inched the Cougars to within one score.
Folino again found the back of the net in the 82nd minute, scoring a back-post equalizer that knotted the match at 3-3.
“Everybody had no doubt that we were finishing that in regular time,” BYU senior midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa said of her team’s belief. “There was literally no doubt in my mind.”
The Cougars fed off that belief, capitalizing on the Tar Heel squad’s panic in the 89th minute on a go-ahead goal inside the box from Wade-Katoa.
Moments later, BYU’s special night at South Field reached its peak as time expired – but only until next weekend for the Cougars.
After Friday, BYU advances to its second ever College Cup, which begins this weekend in Cary, North Carolina. The Cougars will meet No. 2 seed Stanford on Friday at 6:30 p.m. MST.
