Florida State women knock off defending champion Stanford
CARY, N.C. (AP) — Gabby Carle and Malia Berkely scored first-half goals on Friday night and Florida State snapped reigning champion Stanford's 45-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 victory in the College Cup semifinal.
Stanford's school-record unbeaten streak was the longest for Division I women's soccer since North Carolina went 70 games without a loss from 1996 to 1998.
It was the third time in school history that Florida State (19-4-3) has defeated the No. 1 team in the nation and the Seminoles will face North Carolina for an all-ACC final on Sunday. Florida State lost at home to North Carolina 1-0 in the regular season and beat the Tar Heels 3-2 in the ACC championship in Cary, North Carolina. The Tar Heels beat Georgetown with a late goal in the other semifinal Thursday night.
Carle opened the scoring in the 29th minute with her first goal of the season. She slipped through a pair of defenders near the touchline, dribbled past another to get an opening at the top of the area and ripped a left-footed shot back into the right corner of the goal. Carle, a 4.0 student, was recognized on Thursday night as the 2018 NCAA Division I women's soccer Elite 90 award winner, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each NCAA championship.
Until Carle's goal, the Cardinal (21-1-2) had not been behind in a game since Sept. 27 and had trailed just 16 minutes, 28 seconds overall in the last two seasons.
Berkely took a long-distance shot in the 42nd minute that the Stanford goalkeeper mishandled, doubling Florida State's lead before the half. It was Berkely's first goal of the season, which set a Florida State program record with 16 different players scoring this year.
