Tim Peeler: Looking back at NC State women's soccer's 1988 NCAA Championship game appearance

They were so, so close.

And that proved to be the biggest problem for the NC State women’s soccer team when it lined up in Chapel Hill to play for the 1988 NCAA Championship, the pinnacle for a program that had begun varsity competition just five years earlier.

It was a precursor, some 37 years ago, for the Wolfpack men’s to play for its first national championship tonight at Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park.

Neither the Wolfpack women nor any other team in the country had ever won at North Carolina’s Fetzer Field, where top-ranked and four-time defending national champion Tar Heels had compiled an all-time record, to that point, of 86-0-2. Even more daunting, head coach Anson Dorrance’s dominating program was riding a 69-game overall unbeaten streak that eventually ran to more than 100 games.

There was some confident hope, however, in the Wolfpack camp. Under the guidance of ACC Coach of the Year Larry Gross and featuring ACC Player of the Year Linda Hamilton, the Wolfpack had twice tied the Tar Heels in overtime that year, once in the regular season and once in the finals of the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, both of which were played at the Pack’s own Method Road Stadium.

The outcome of the latter game is still officially recorded as a 1-1 draw, but Gross’s team was crowned champion after outscoring the Tar Heels on penalty kicks following a 90-minute regulation and two 15-minute overtimes.

The championship was determined by the Wolfpack’s 4-3 advantage in the shootout. UNC’s Lori Henry and NC State’s Linda Hamilton missed the first two shots, then each of the next six players made good on their chances: Jill Rutten, Fabienne Gareau and Charmaine Hooper for the Wolfpack and Wendy Gebauer, Shannon Higgins and Chris Huston for the Tar Heels.

State goalkeeper Lindsay Brecher put the Wolfpack in the driver’s seat when she blocked Pam Kalinoski’s attempt and then Wolfpack All-America senior Laura Kerrigan bounced the winning kick off UNC goalie Merridee Proost.

Brecher – now Lindsay Cobb, after her marriage to NC State football player and one-tim athletics administrator Charlie Cobb — was named as the inaugural Most Valuable Player.

State won the title after Gross raised holy hell about the Tar Heels being awarded the top-seed, even though the two nearby rivals tied in the regular season, had the same record against ACC teams and the Wolfpack had an aggregate scoring advantage, made possible by the fact the Tar Heels declined to play first-year ACC member Maryland. The teams had been ranked all season long in the top 5 of the national polls.

However, since the top-ranked Tar Heels were ahead of State in the national standings, the ACC took a vote of the league’s coaches (several of whom played at UNC) and gave the top seed to the Tar Heels.

“Once again, Carolina f**** everybody,” Gross told the ACC office.

Wolfpack athletics director Jim Valvano, who had some knowledge of that very thing, told Gross he should probably say something after being so disrespectful. Gross called back to the league office and told the women’s soccer supervisor, “I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

He didn’t, however, apologize.

Though it didn’t matter, it set up the other unfortunate circumstance for Gross’s team: Following the first weekend of NCAA tournament play, in which both teams had first-round byes in the 12-team field and posted quarterfinal wins on their home fields, the NCAA awarded the Final Four games to UNC. At that time, when crowds were often fewer than 1,500 spectators, the NCAA took bids to host between the second and third weekends of the tournament. Carolina didn’t know until the Tuesday before the semifinals it would be the host school.

The four qualifiers played semifinal games on Saturday, Nov. 19, 1988, with NC State beating California 1-0 and North Carolina winning over Wisconsin 3-0 to set up the first ever meeting of two ACC teams for a national championship in any sport and the first meeting between the Wolfpack and Tar Heels for a national title. (That was matched when the two rivals met for the 2023 NCAA women’s tennis title, which was won by North Carolina 4-1 in Orlando, Florida.

There wasn’t much attention for the contest at the time, with most game stories and previews relegated to inside coverage in the state’s top newspapers. The championship game was broadcast on ESPN—after a 13-day delay. Tickets for the three Final Four games were $4 for fans and $2 for students, and an estimated 3,500 fans showed up to see the two rivals face each other.

State’s youthful optimism came from its stingy defense. Brecher recorded 18 shutouts in the Pack’s first 23 games and opponents scored only eight goals all season before the finals.

Carolina’s home-field advantage was almost insurmountable. The Tar Heels had never lost at Fetzer Field and had outscored their opponents by a 566-30 margin.

The first half of the title game was tight, as anticipated, with the Tar Heels taking a 1-0 advantage 30 minutes in on a crossing goal by Higgins, the future member of Team USA’s 1991 World Cup team and head coach at both George Washington and Maryland.

By the second half, the Wolfpack’s lineup that included four sophomores and four freshmen, began to show fatigue.

Higgins scored again early in the second half for a 2-0 lead. The Wolfpack put a point on the scoreboard on a penalty kick by ACC scoring leader Hooper, but Higgins scored once more for to post a hat trick and freshman Stacey Blazo added another goal in the final two minutes of play for the 4-1 final score. Carolina outshot the Wolfpack 17-4.

“Without question, this the best feeling after an NCAA title that I’ve ever had,” Dorrance said. “The game was at home ad in front of the biggest crowd I’ve every seen here, and we’re playing a rival we haven’t beaten all year.

“When you add all these things up, it’s a great feeling.”

The only regrets for NC State in the game was that its players might have used up too much energy in beating California in the semifinals for the opportunity to play for the national title.

“I mean, we were just idiots,” says Cobb, who is now the goalkeeper coach at Emory in Atlanta, which just played for the Division III national title last weekend. “We were jumping around and dancing around using every bit of energy we had after the game. I had hurt myself in the ACC title game, too, and I was not physically at my best.

“They came out and hit us in the mouth for the first goal and we didn’t recover well. It’s something we regret.”

For Dorrance’s Tar Heels, it was the third in a string of nine-consecutive NCAA titles. They eventually ran their unbeaten streak to 101 contests. After that string ended in 1991, the Tar Heels broke their own record with 103 games without a loss.

In 1989, the Wolfpack women returned to college soccer’s Final Four, this time at its own (now-defunct) Method Road Stadium. However, the more veteran team—playing this time without Hamilton, who transferred to UNC after the 1988 season and was sitting out under transfer rules—again lost to the Tar Heels, 2-0.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].