It took nearly every minute of soccer played Friday to decide the finalists for the NCAA Women's College Cup.
Stanford scored in the fourth minute of overtime -- the 94th overall -- to beat UCLA 2-1 at the Aggie Soccer Stadium, and North Carolina finally figured out how to break down the Notre Dame defense in the 83rd minute of their match for a 1-0 victory.
No. 1 Stanford (25-0-0) will look to complete a perfect season, while No. 4 North Carolina (22-3-1) will be going for its 20th national title when the two meet at noon Sunday.
The game-winner in the opener started innocently before Stanford's Christen Press belted a shot from 25 yards out past a diving Chante' Sandiford and into the side netting.
UCLA's Dea Cook headed out a floating ball sent to near the top of the box and Press gathered it, took a couple of dribbles to set up her big right foot, and put the Cardinal in the final.
"I remember thinking through the overtime that as a forward I would have a chance and I had to be ready for my one opening," Press said. "I felt for a lot of the game I wasn't getting as involved as I would have liked to and I knew on my one chance I would have to hit hard and low."
Press did just that for her 21st goal of the season.
Overtime was nearly avoided twice in the final 45 seconds by the Cardinal. First, a shot from 20 yards out didn't bend enough and missed the far post by a couple of feet. Then, 28 seconds later, Kelley O'Hara beat the keeper to the ball at the top of the box but her angled shot from 17 yards away hit the woodwork right where the upright and crossbar connect.
UCLA (21-3-1) had its chances, too, after squaring the score at 1-1. Leading scorer Sydney Leroux, who the Cardinal kept quiet for most of the match, sent a shot from the top of the box just over the top of the net after squeezing past a Stanford defender.
"The field is really a fast field and it was getting more intense as the game went on," Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe said. "And in overtime it was even more intense."
The team's two name players traded second half goals to force the overtime.
First it was O'Hara, with a shot from just outside the half-circle that was struck well, and caught Sandiford a step or two off her line. It beat Sandiford over her right shoulder for her 26th goal of the season, which is tops in the nation.
Lauren Cheney responded 2 minutes later with a similar strike. She turned on a ball from about the same spot O'Hara hit hers and sent it over the right shoulder of Kira Maker, who just got a fingertip on it. It was the 18th goal for Cheney, who leaves UCLA as the Bruins' all-time leader in points with 173.
She and her fellow UCLA seniors made the College Cup every year but were unable to claim the trophy.
"It's obviously an honor to have broken records at UCLA. There have a been a lot of great players come through this program," Cheney said. "Besides records and College Cups, I hope I leave a mark other than that."
Press was credited with an assist on O'Hara's goal and Kylie Wright and Lauren Wilmoth were awarded helpers on Cheney's goal.
"Stanford is a very good team but I thought we gave them a very good match," UCLA coach Jillian Ellis said. "I felt in the first half we had as many good looks at goal as they did. That's a good attacking team and I think we limited their chances."
Stanford outshot UCLA 19-16.
In North Carolina's victory over Notre Dame (21-4-1), Casey Nogueira moved her postseason goal total past her regular season number with the lone marker of the match.
With the Tar Heels starting to look a little frustrated late, Nogueira used her left foot to redirect a ball from freshman Lucy Bronze, who had worked deep into the box on the right side, past a diving Nikki Weiss. It was Nogueira's seventh postseason goal after a regular season of just finding the net six times. She had a hat trick in the quarterfinal victory over Wake Forest.
"She made sure the pass gave us a shot inside four yards with the goaltender eliminated, and even my team can score on that shot," North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. "[Notre Dame] did some things others had done which have been affective against us and made it difficult to score."
It took until the 24th shot for the Tar Heels to get the game-winner.
"I knew [Bronze] was going to pass it and got where I thought she would pass it and she did," Nogueira said. "Notre Dame has a tough defense and we had to take a ton of shots. We just didn't stop shooting."
Nogueira also made it four goals against Notre Dame at the College Cup, getting one in 2006 and both last year in its 2-1 victory for the title.
Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum was still unsure who had scored the goal after the game and felt his team had done a good job of keeping the ball away from Nogueira.
"We tried Amanda Clark on Tobin Heath and she did a good job of neutralizing Tobin," Waldrum said. "[Nogueira] is such a special player but we felt if we could [mark Heath] it would eliminate the quality service."
Notre Dame had not lost for 19 games after starting 3-3 and came in as the only non-No.1 seed after defeating Florida State 2-0 in the quarterfinals. One of the Irish's early losses was 6-0 to the Tar Heels.
"Notre Dame matured tremendously through he course of the season," Dorrance said. "They changed things, which made it harder to play. They did some things others had done which are affective against us and made it difficult to score."
Notre Dame had one last attempt to force overtime, but UNC central defender Rachel Givan stretched to keep a through pass from getting to Taylor Knaack as the clock reached the final minute.
North Carolina outshot Notre Dame 12-4 in the opening half and 26-8 for the game.
WOMEN'S COLLEGE CUP
* Friday's semifinal matches: Stanford 2, UCLA 1, OT; North Carolina 1, Notre Dame 0
* Sunday's final: Stanford (25-0-0) vs. North Carolina (22-3-1), noon (ESPN2, Ch. 28)
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