Florida State women's soccer: North Carolina defeats Seminoles in a thriller in NCAA semifinal

Cary, N.C. − The rubber match between the Florida State women’s soccer team with North Carolina proved to be as dramatic as the first two times the ACC foes squared off.

The Tar Heels defeated the Seminoles 3-2 as goalkeeper Emmie Allen jumped up for a save in the waning seconds to secure the NCAA Women's Soccer National semifinal Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park.

UNC (20-5-1) led 3-0 in the 66th minute, but then FSU (17-3-3) made a ferocious comeback late to get within a goal with less than 15 minutes left.

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Following a scoreless first 42 minutes, Aleigh Gambone scored a goal off a deflection by FSU’s Heather Payne in the box. Maddie Dahlien had the initial shot which Payne ricocheted before Gambone got an open shot on goalkeeper Christina Roque.

Tori Hanson pushed the lead to 2-0 on a PK attempt in the 59th minute. Heather Gilcrist committed a handball foul on a shot by the Tar Heels inside the box, which allowed Hanson to get the PK.

Julia Dorsey pushed the Tar Heels lead to 3-0 when she scored off a header by Emily Moxley in the 66th minute.

Onyi Echegeni quickly responded to keep the Seminoles in the game and onto the scoreboard in the 67th off a cross by Jody Brown.

FSU outshot UNC 11-6 for the game on shots on goal, including 5-2 in the first half. But the Tar Heels came out as the aggressors in the second half and were able to build pressure on the Seminoles by scoring two goals early in the second half.

Heather Payne brought the Seminoles within a goal with a score in the 75th minute off an assist from Echegini.

The three goals allowed tied a season-high for the Seminoles, as they allowed three as well in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Notre Dame, which ended in PKs.

UNC will play the winner of the Alabama-UCLA semifinal at 6 p.m. Monday.

"Congrats to North Carolina for moving on to Monday's final," FSU head coach Brian Pensky said. "Obviously, we are gravely disappointed right now, our kids, they're shattered for a number of reasons. They want to play on Monday and they don't want this season to be over."

Here are three takeaways from the Seminoles' season-ending loss.

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FSU mounts comeback

Trailing 3-0 with 24 minutes left, the Seminoles looked dead in the water. But FSU mounted an unlikely comeback. Echegeni scored in the 67th minute, right after the Tar Heels had pushed the lead to 3-0.

Echegeni’s goal came on a long cross from Brown. With less than 15 minutes to go, Payne scored her goal off an assist from Echegeni to pull the Seminoles within two.

FSU mounted a couple of attacks, but Allen, who had nine saves in the win for UNC, made a couple of diving attempts on shots.

The game ended with Allen saving a ball off a long-distance shot. She fell to the ground and her teammates mobbed her as she held onto the ball.

"You have to be confident that you're going to do it," FSU senior Jenna Nighswonger said. "When I look around at my teammates, anyone can score at any minute. We've proven that this season. ...

"You have to believe or else it's not going to happen. And I think we believed up until the last second."

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Missed opportunities for the Seminoles

Florida State outshot UNC 11-6 on shots on goal and had 13 corner kicks to just three for the Tar Heels.

The Seminoles struggled to convert on their opportunities, scoring on two of the 11 shots on goal. UNC scored three times on its six shots, including the PK by Hanson in the 59th minute. Allen had five first-half saves and four more in the second half.

UNC was able to push the ball inside the box and put pressure on FSU, scoring in the 42nd minute as it appeared to likely to a tie ballgame at halftime.

"I think we had a good first half," Nighswoner said. "And we knew that. Yeah, we're down, but we can come back. We've done that against good teams before."

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Tar Heels change up formation

Following the loss to the Seminoles in the ACC Tournament championship game, Tar Heel coach Anson Dorrance said the team changed up their formation in preparation for potentially playing FSU again.

UNC switched from a 4-3-3 formation to a 5-3-2 following the second round of the tournament.

"I want to give absolute full credit to (associate head coach) Damon Nahas, who came up with this game plan, by the way, after we lost to them in the ACC final," Dorrance said.

UNC came out aggressive in the second half and did not fall back into a defensive mode despite the 1-0 lead.

"We knew they would come out really fast in the second half," Echegeni said. "I personally thought we didn't deal with it as well as we could have.

Dorrance, who has coached for 44 seasons with the Tar Heels, is 21-5 all-time in the national championship game.

Pensky again reiterated he felt his team played well, despite the loss. The first few moments of the second half turned out to be the difference.

"Honestly, I felt like we dealt with it really well," Pensky said. "They had the ball for 12 minutes or so at the beginning of the second half. But we were really good. And shots were 25 to 14, corner kicks were 13 to 3. We played really well. We gave up a goal on a set piece. We gave up the goal against the run a play before halftime and we gave up a goal on a penalty.

"We were phenomenal. We have 25 shots today. We were really good. Really disappointed that we're going on.

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU Seminoles women's soccer loses to North Carolina Tar Heels in NCAA