Tar Heel depth ends Bruins’ stellar season

CARY, N.C. ““ Senior midfielder McCall Zerboni knew it when she heard the pop.

The star senior’s season was over, just like that.

“I think we were jumping up for a header, and when I jumped up, she (a UNC player) nudged me, so I fell to the ground quicker than expected, and I just fell on the outside of my ankle,” Zerboni said. “When I went down, it just popped. Instantly I knew when I went down, and yeah, I didn’t get back up.”

The awkward fall came less than 20 minutes into Zerboni’s final game as a Bruin, forcing UCLA’s emotional leader to make an impact for her team from the sideline.

No X-rays have been taken as of yet, but doctors told Zerboni they think she sprained a few ligaments. The length of the recovery process will depend largely on whether the ligaments are fully torn.

The injury came at the most inopportune time for the senior who, in addition to missing a large part of Friday’s semifinal, would have had the chance to participate in the Women’s Professional Soccer League combine on Thursday.

“Definitely didn’t expect to play only 18 minutes,” Zerboni said. “I had a lot of faith in our team, and Summer (Williams) went in and did a great job. But things happen. As a team you never know when people are going to go down, but you should never take it for granted.”

Zerboni will be evaluated by doctors today.

“A DIFFERENT FEELING”: UCLA coach Jill Ellis is an English major, but when asked to describe the feeling after Friday’s loss, she paused and seemed to struggle a little bit.

Finally, she analyzed the situation by comparing it to last year’s.

“It was a different feeling the year before, and it wasn’t because it was ‘SC,” Ellis said. “Last year, it was a feeling that we let something slip away.

“I think in this instance, we battled and we fought. I think for me it was disappointment in the result but in no way, shape or form, disappointment in the player’s effort and the season. I think last year the emotions were high, and this year it was sadness for the seniors.”

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: For the third time in six years, UCLA traveled to Cary, N.C. to play North Carolina.

And for the third time they were sent home early.

Although it wasn’t at the Tar Heels home field, powder blue outnumbered Bruin blue substantially amongst the 8,926 fans at sold out WakeMed Soccer Park on Friday night.

North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance minced no words about the environment being advantageous for the Tar Heels.

“It’s a huge advantage; we don’t pretend it’s not,” he said. “As the season goes on, you get worn down with travel, and at this juncture you don’t want to travel. So just jumping in our vans and driving over here 25-30 minutes to Cary is wonderful for us. We consider it a great advantage; Certainly it is a disadvantage for UCLA that they had to travel and we didn’t.”

While the Bruins have won their last 55 matches at home, they have lost all five times they have played UNC in the state of North Carolina.

Ellis somewhat dismissed the question of environment being a factor and instead gave credit to North Carolina.

“To be a great team, you have to be able to play on the road,” Ellis said. “Unfortunately we did that for 45 minutes instead of 90.”

The temperature reached a low of 31 degrees by the time the game finished around 9 p.m.

TAR HEEL DEPTH: To compliment their high-pressure style, UNC utilized multiple substitutions through the match to keep the pressure on as UCLA’s starters began to tire.

At one point late in the second half, UNC subs accumulated waiting for a dead ball throw-in. When an opportunity finally arose to sub, five fresh Tar Heels ran onto the field all at once.

“What we try to do is rest legs,” Dorrance said. “It’s clear that we try to play a high-pressure game, and when you play a high-pressure game you wear yourself out. The players who are under the most stress in terms of working hard are the frontrunners. So our plan is to play at least six frontrunners a game. In today’s game, I think we played seven. By the time we got them out, they were all absolutely exhausted.”

A LITTLE NERVOUS: Despite a group with a wealth of experience and seven seniors, Ellis attributed part of the team’s first-half struggles to nerves.

“I think partly you have to understand that these are young ladies, and it’s probably a little bit nervous in there,” she said.

“We talked at halftime how we came out against teams this year fearless, and I think we came in here and we just didn’t string passes together, and we played kind of to the center of the field where their strength was. “

NOTES: Even with Friday’s defeat, the Bruins set a new team record for fewest losses in a season in 2008, with one loss in 25 matches … The Bruins also tied a school record with 22 victories … This was the sixth straight time and seventh time in program history that UCLA advanced to the College Cup … the Bruins are 0-7 all-time against North Carolina and 0-4 in College Cup meetings.

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