Published 11/25/2012 8:25:47 AM by Shane Barrow from soccermogul

The Womens College Cup is all set for San Diego after four wonderful quarterfinal matches that were all decided by a single goal.

Florida State took care of business on their home field Friday to book their place in the final four.  A 54th minute goal from Tiffany McCarty was enough to defeat a tough Notre Dame squad. A long throw in led to the winning goal as Dagny Brynjarsdottir flicked the throw in to McCarty who headed home the winner.  Notre Dame pushed hard for the tying goal, but were unable to beat the stiff FSU defense.

Penn State earned their place in the Womens College Cup with a tight 1-0 win over Duke in cold and windy conditions.  A Christine Nairn penalty kick was the only score of the match.  Duke were shutout despite a dominating 19-7 shot advantage on the day.

North Carolina travelled to Utah and knocked off BYU in overtime.  It was a dominant performance from UNC who bossed much of the game.  An early Crystal Dunn goal put UNC ahead after only 3 minutes.  BYU came back and earned a penalty kick in the 27th minute which Rachel Manning put home.  Despite controlling much of the play North Carolina were unable to find the winner and the match would need overtime.  BYU had a golden opportunity to win the game in overtime as they countered a UNC corner kick with numbers.  A remarkable effort from Brooke Elby cleared the ball before it went into the empty net.  Minutes later a perfect cross from Kealia Ohai found Crystal Dunn who put the winner home.

The last quarterfinal was a west coast battle between UCLA and Stanford.  It was a tall order asking UCLA to win at Stanford where are unbeaten in 67 matches.  UCLA put up a valiant fight but Lo’eau LaBonta scored twice on corner kicks to provide the 2-1 margin.  Stanford will be making their 5th consecutive appearance in the final four.

The Womens College Cup semifinals are Friday at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium with the championship set for December 2 at 1 pm. Top-ranked Stanford (21-1-1) will have to go through North Carolina (13-5-3) in one semifinal.  Stanford has never beaten UNC in 11 previous matches.  The other semifinal pits Penn State against Florida State.

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