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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — What started out as a day that looked like it might hold a historic breakthrough for Virginia turned into a convincing North Carolina victory.

The Tar Heels, driven by senior midfielder Gianna Bowe, pushed through temperatures in the high 80s to beat Virginia 14-7 in a NCAA quarterfinal matchup.

Bowe scored a hat trick to lead UNC in scoring, but according to UNC head coach Jenny Levy, it was her work away from the goals that won the game.

“The even bigger stat for us was the five draw controls she had,” Levy said. “In our last game against Virginia we really struggled in the middle of the field, so to play well today we felt like we needed to dominate that.”

Bowe also recorded a ground ball and a caused turnover, which together with her tally in the draw circle, gave her 7 possession-deciding plays, more than any other player on either team. And despite the bright sunshine and soaring temperatures, Bowe rarely left the field for a break.

“She’ll exhaust herself,” Levy said of Bowe. “She’ll say, ‘no I’m good to go’ and we have to say ‘no, take a little break, we’ll get you back in.’”

With the win, UNC moves on to its third championship weekend in four years. The only year in Bowe’s career that the Tar Heels missed the cut to the final weekend came in 2017 in a similar quarterfinal game, when Navy upset the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

Virginia spoiled a rematch of that game by beating Navy last week in the NCAA second round, but for the first 10 minutes Saturday, another upset seemed to be in the air.

The Cavaliers built a 3-1 lead, led in part by the strong goaltending of Charlie Campbell, who finished with 11. And even as they found holes in UNC’s defense, Virginia’s best two scorers - Avery Shoemaker and Maggie Jackson – had yet to score.

Meanwhile, the UVA defense - led by seniors Allison Shields, Kaitlin Luzik and Sophie Alecce, were bottling up UNC’s All-American pair of Jamie Ortega and Katie Hoeg.

Led by a strong senior class that includes four-year starters in Jackson and Luzik, Virginia had hopes of making it to its first semifinal since 2014. The Cavaliers had played UNC to a single-goal on the same field in March.

“We’d been focusing all week on starting the game strong, trying to win the first five minutes,” said Virginia coach Julie Myers. “We really wanted to do it 12 times, but we only did it twice. But they’re so good, we knew they weren’t going to go away.”

Still, with two early goals from Nora Bowen and one from Lillie Kloak, a UVA breakthrough seemed possible.

But then Bowe took over.
 

After Virginia took that 3-1 lead, the UNC senior won the ensuing draw control and came down and took a shot that went high but the draw-to-shot play seemed to pick her teammates up and within two minutes the Tar Heels had tied the score, 3-3 on goals from Kara Klages and Olivia Ferrucci.

Then, after 10 scoreless minutes when neither side could find momentum and the heat began to take its toll on UVA’s defense, Bowe made a play that put UNC ahead for good. Though Virginia held a man-advantage due to a North Carolina foul, Bowe out-scrapped two defenders for a groundball just outside UVA’s crease, then, while falling to the ground, fired a shot past Campbell.

The goal put the Tar Heels up 4-3, and seemed to cause UVA’s defense to slacken slightly, allowing UNC to score two more quick goals to go up 6-3. Carolina even had a chance for more before halftime as a UVA dropped ball turned into back-to-back open shots. Campbell saved one, then Bowe fired high just before halftime.

For UNC, Bowe’s emergence as a do-it-all midfielder is the final step in a career-long progression. As a freshman, she was an instant offensive star playing attack, but moved to midfield, Levy says, because “we wanted her energy on the field.” As a junior, playing with a line of now-departed high scoring midfielders, “she got all the loose balls and did the scrappy stuff we needed. Now she’s playing as a full middie.”

“Whatever my team needs at a certain time I’m willing to do,” said Bowe.

Despite Campbell’s effort in goal before halftime, UNC quickly ended any hopes of an upset after halftime, running the score up to 12-3 before the teams traded goals in the final 10 minutes as the Tar Heels began to substitute. That included a spinning, razzle-dazzle of a goal when Ida Farinholt jumped to catch a feed from Ortega in front of the goal and spun nearly all the way around to score.

“When Carolina started scoring, I think our attack got sticky,” said Myers. “We stopped moving and sharing the ball and that made us very easy to defend.”

For UNC, Ortega ended up matching Bowe’s total of three goals, as did Scottie Rose Growney. Olivia Ferrucci and Katie Hoeg had four assists.

For Ortega and Hoeg, the totals continue unprecedented seasons. Ortega heads to the final weekend with UNC season records of 76 goals and 105 points, while Hoeg’s afternoon put her over 100 points for the season, including 69 assists. The two are UNC’s first 100-point scorers.

North Carolina will play Boston College in them NCAA semifinals on Friday, a rematch of April’s ACC championship game in which the Tar Heels handed the Eagles their only loss of the season. Boston College beat Princeton 17-12 today in the quarterfinals.

For Virginia’s Myers, the loss meant the final game coaching the senior class.

“They’re so much more than a game,” she said. “What they’ve done on and off the field has been so exceptional from a leadership point of view. I couldn’t be more appreciative and grateful for who they are as people and what they were able to accomplish in their four years. On the field they’re warriors. They were taped up to make sure they could make it through a game. If we could, we would practice again tomorrow.”