Surviving a slow start against a deliberate Charlotte team, UNC won the College Cup 1-0 on a goal in the 64th minute from Ben Speas. The title – UNC's second, the first coming ten years earlier – goes to a relatively young team and their first-year coach, making the Heels the immediate favorites to repeat.

Speas, who scored the final penalty kick against UCLA in the semifinals and a goal in the quarterfinals against Saint Mary's was named Most Valuable Offensive Player for the tournament. Keeper Scott Goodwin and the UNC defense held their third shutout of the tournament. Carolina becomes the first team since Virginia in 1985 to win the regular season, ACC Tournament, and NCAA Championships.

UNC was not projected to go far this year, having lost seven seniors and their 22-year coach from a team that fell to Louisville in the semifinals, making the win all the sweeter. The transfers of Speas (from Akron) and defender Matt Hedges (from Butler) were key, as was the return of Billy Schuler from an injury that kept him out last season.

Carolina was held scoreless in all the first halves of all five NCAA tournament games, falling behind in two. This was an incredibly tough defensive team, and it paid off, as UNC brings home the school's 40th national championship. The Heels finish the season 21-2-3, with their last loss coming to Davidson on October 17th.

More on Saturday's basketball game and Larry Fedora's hire today and tomorrow.

I know comments from a soccer coach aren't what folks are trolling Caroina web sites for at the moment – yes, Larry Fedora has excepted the football coaching job and there's a press conference tomorrow – but this AP article caught my eye. UNC's top-ranked men's soccer team will be playing in their fifth College Cup this weekend, starting with a game on Friday against UCLA. They'll be doing so under a first-year coach, Carlos Somoano, who took over after the coach of 22 years, Elmar Bolowich left.

But Bolowich didn't retire. He left to be the coach at Creighton, another College Cup team UNC might just meet in the finals.

Bolowich, who coached at UNC for 22 years, seems very happy at Creighton, and the New York Times story on him really emphasizes the primacy that soccer can have on a college campus without a football team. And I appreciate that; I went to grad school at a place that drop football in 1992, and won a soccer title in 2006. (Fans stormed the empty field, grabbed the soccer goal, and threw it of the bluffs.) And they drew pretty good crowds, but I saw the same sort of crowds and big Carolina soccer matches, too. But what bugs me is this:

At North Carolina, he had to share his facility with the men's and women's lacrosse and track teams, and the grass field was used for summer football camps. The facility was open all day every day so faculty members could run on the track.

"That was always a thorn in my eye," he said, "because we were the only facility in the ACC that was not secured and locked up."

Frankly, UNC is a public university, supported by students and the citizens of North Carolina. Less facilities should be locked up. I liked being able to run around the track at Fetzer Field. I liked playing ball in Woolen Gym, and that you could cut from there into Carmichael Auditorium. You used to be able to walk onto the field at Kenan too, although I'm sure that's locked up. I understand you want the soccer program to not be dwarfed by the football program, but the answer to that is not to elevate another program out of the reach of the students, or to lock more of the university away from those attending it.

Ah well. I'm glad Bolowich is happy at Creighton. I'm sure he's happy with his $13 million dollar stadium with luxury suites, where no mere student can trespass. It's a shame; I remember running the bleacher steps at UCSB's championship-producing stadium without any hassle. Best of luck to you, Elmar.

Until the finals, at least, when UNC can crush you in the College Cup.

UNC plays UCLA Friday at 8:30 in Hoover, Alabama. The game is on ESPNU, as is the Creighton game prior.

That's the takeaway from the fact that Carolina soccer players swept the awards for something called the Elite 88, which is, well:

An award founded by the NCAA [that] recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 88 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 88 championships. 

Yay! It's the part of the NCAA that pretends to care about its student athletes.

Anyway, as both the men's and women's soccer teams made it to their respective Final Fours, the men's award went to Bill Dworsky, who's pulling a 4.0 in Economics and Comparative Lit while Kristi Eveland took the women's award with a 3.93 in Business Administration. Eveland was part of a starting defense for the Heels that only gave up 12 goals all season; UNC finished the year a few weeks back with the third national championship for this year's senior class and 20th overall with a 1-0 win over Stanford. The men's team battled Akron to a scoreless tie in their Final Four, only to lose on penalty kicks. Akron would go on and lose in the finals to Virginia, also on penalty kicks.

Between these performances and UNC women's field hockey championship, the Heels should be high in the Director's Cup standings that will be released today, with only Stanford and Virginia possibly having higher scores. Please try to go about your day normally, and do not crack under the immense tension.

After mixed results in the ACC tournaments, UNC is barging ahead in the various NCAA Tournaments currently going on. The field hockey team, after a loss in their ACC tournament opener, nabbed the three seed in the NCAA tournament. They've plowed through their first two opponents beating both Ohio State and Wake Forest by the same score of 4-1. The defeat of the Demon Deacons was especially crushing, as the Final Four is being hosted in Winston-Salem this season. And the Heels have success in that city; in addition to beating Wake there earlier this season, it's also where UNC happened to win the 1995 Championship, their second. UNC goes into the Final Four with this year's ACC Freshman of the Year, the awesomely-named Kelsey Kolojejchick, as well as four other all-ACC players including the 2007 winner of the same award, Katelyn Falgowski. The Heels are joined in Winston-Salem by undefeated Maryland and the team that knocked UNC out of the ACC, Virginia. Games are Friday and Sunday.

The women's soccer team did win the ACC tournament, their 20th. This earned them the top seed in one of the regionals, where the swept their two games at Fetzer Field. This is largely behind the play of the ACC Tournament MVP Casey Nogueria, with 13 shots  and three assists, and three goals from freshman Lucy Bronze. The defense has a streak of seven straight shutouts going into this Saturday's third round game in Chapel Hill against Maryland. The Terps have lost twice to Heels in the past month; if Carolina wins, they face either Wake Forest or South Carolina the following week.

The men's soccer team was eliminated from the ACC tournament in the first round by N.C. State. They've earned the 5th overall seed, and play either Brown or Stony Brook Sunday in Fetzer Field. The finals in this tournament are down the road in Cary, which the team used as a home field when Fetzer was being renovated a few years back. Things are looking good for adding more hardware to the various trophy cases over the next month.

Forget football – I know what you've really been hungering for. Yep, you can't live without reports on this season's Carlyle Cup race, where UNC and Duke square off in 23 sports to see exactly how many ways Carolina can defeat the Blue Devils in any particular year. So far this season, Duke has had to face the undefeated and top-ranked women's soccer team, the undefeated and second-ranked women's field hockey team, and the at the time undefeated and second-ranked men's soccer team.

Things went rather poorly for the folks from Durham.

Surprisingly enough, Duke had the greatest success in women's soccer, in a game that was scoreless for the first eighty-three minutes that was suddenly pushed into overtime when the teams exchanged goals in the final seven minutes of regulation. It was the first goal scored on the Heels since August 22nd. True, the Heels had lost two players to injury and were missing two others, Ashlyn Harris (goalie) and Tobin Heath (midfield) due to national team commitments, but no one wants to be in the presence of Duke students any longer than they have to. UNC would go on to win in overtime after Alyssa Rich scored in her first career start.

The other two Duke games weren't nearly as close. The men's soccer team also won 2-1, holding Due to a paltry five shots on goal and none in the first half. The field hockey team absolutely destroyed the Blue Devils, outscoring them 7-0 on goals from five different players; compare that to Duke's offense, which only managed three shots on goal the entire game. How badass is the field hockey team? They've got a player out there allergic to her own sweat. I now feel bad for every excuse I've given for not going out for a run. Duke at the time was ranked twelfth – field hockey being a particularly small sport – while UNC remains second, stuck between undefeated Maryland in first place and undefeated Virginia at third. The Heels play both teams on Saturday's this month.

With the women's team having already secured the national championship this season, the men's team has now earned a chance to do the same, beating top-ranked Wake Forest  1-0 in the NCAA semifinals. It was the defending champion Deacons' second loss of the season.

UNC goes on to play fellow ACC team Maryland, a 1-0 winner of St. John's. The Terps have beaten the Heels twice this season already, in back to back games at College Park and Cary to close the season and eliminate UNC from the ACC Tournament, respectively. No school has ever won both the men's and women's titles in the same year, although UNC came the closest in 2001 when the men's team took the trophy home and the women's fell in the finals to Santa Clara.

The title game is played Sunday, in Frisco, Texas, but can be seen at 1 pm on ESPN2.

It what is almost an annual tradition, UNC's women's soccer team won it's 19th national championship, defeating Notre Dame 2-1 behind a pair of Casey Nogueira goals. Carolina is such a mainstay in the title game that it was their fifth championship victory over Notre Dame - the Heels also beat them for the title in 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2006.

It was Notre Dame's only loss of the year, while UNC finished 25-1-2. It was also Casey Nogueria's second and third goals in a national championship game, as she scored one in 2006 against, you guessed it, Notre Dame.

The 2008 Olympic Women's Soccer team has been selected, and as is right and proper there are more Tar Heels on the list than any other school. Joining Heather O'Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley from the 2004 gold medal team are Lori Chalupny and Tobin Heath, with Kacey White as an alternate. Interestingly enough, all but Chalupny are listed as midfielders, although both Tarpley and O'Reilly have played up front on the national team before and Chalupny played midfield in the 2007 World Cup. Only Heath and White are relative newcomers to the team (and current UNC players), with the other three having a minimum of 70 appearances apiece on the national team.