CARY, N.C. — Emily Morris scored her fourth goal of the season in the 73rd minute and Wake Forest beat Stanford 1-0 on Friday night to advance to the program’s first College Cup championship match.
Wake Forest (16-3-4), which will play North Carolina for the title Monday, was picked to finish ninth in the ACC preseason poll after missing last year’s NCAA tournament with a record of 10-3-5 and a sixth-place ACC finish.
Three-time national champion Stanford (16-5-2) was hoping to return to the title game after losing to eventual champion Florida State last season to end a string of 36 consecutive unbeaten matches.
Morris calmly volleyed Sierra Sythe’s cross off the hands of Stanford goalkeeper Haley Craig, and it landed beyond the goal line before Stanford defender Elise Evans cleared it away.
Craig kept it a one-goal game with nine minutes remaining when she dived to her right to deny Caiya Hanks’ close-range attempt.
Stanford’s best scoring chance came in the first half when Wake Forest goalkeeper Valentina Amaral deflected Andrea Kitahata’s shot off the post and the ball rolled across the goal line before defender Kristin Johnson cleared it away.
The game was a rematch of Wake Forest’s first win over a No. 1-ranked team when it defeated the Cardinal 1-0 in September on a goal by Emily Colton.
North Carolina 3, Duke 0
Kate Faasse scored on an early penalty kick, Olivia Thomas added a first-half goal and North Carolina eliminated top-seed Duke in the nightcap of the College Cup semifinals.
Faasse staked the second-seeded and eighth-ranked Tar Heels (21-5) to a 1-0 lead just 9:25 in after a foul on Duke defender Nicole Chico. Faasse leads the nation with 20 goals.
North Carolina took a two-goal lead into halftime when Thomas took a pass from Bella Gaetino and scored at 23:55. It was the eighth goal of the season for Thomas and the second assist for Gaetino.
Maddie Dahlien made it 3-0 in the 59th minute with an assist from Faasse. It was the first goal this season for Dahlien and the third assist for Faasse.
Clare Gagne had five saves for the Tar Heels. Leah Freeman saved two shots for Duke.
North Carolina has has appeared in all 43 NCAA tournaments and won 21 of them.
Duke (18-3-1) was playing in its fifth College Cup and first since 2017 with 29 overall appearances. The Blue Devils entered as the top seed for the first time but fell to 6-45-5 all time against UNC.
Blue Devils coach Robbie Church previously announced he would retire at the end of the season and turn the reins over to associate head coach Kieran Hall. He finishes with 398 career victories.
The Blue Devils (18-3-1) beat the Tar Heels twice during the regular season for the first time in program history before losing 2-1 to them in the championship match of the ACC tournament.
North Carolina beat Wake Forest 1-0 at home in their only matchup this season.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
