As the clock ticked toward triple zeros and extra time loomed, senior midfielder Bella Sember shifted the ball onto her left foot and glanced up the pitch. 25 seconds.
Sophomore forward Olivia Thomas occupied space between two Santa Clara defenders just outside the penalty area. She made her run at the exact moment Sember played a sublime through ball in between the lines. Thomas was in on goal. 23 seconds.
She fired a near-post shot with her right foot from a tight angle. Santa Clara goalkeeper Marlee Nicolos went to ground to make the save, but the ball bounced freely near the goal line. Junior forward Kate Faasse couldn’t convert the rebound and fell to the turf. 20 seconds.
“Just get up the field, that’s all I was focused on,” junior midfielder Tessa Dellarose said. “I saw it bouncing around in the box, and I was like ‘I might as well go for it and see what I can do, get a touch on it, maybe keep the ball alive.’"
Pandemonium in the penalty area. Dellarose crashed the six-yard box and thumped the ball into the back of the net. She was shocked at first, unsure if her goal would be chalked off for a foul. But it wasn’t. Faasse jumped into her arms. Her teammates swarmed her. Then she ran to the bench where they engulfed her in a group hug, jumping up and down.
The game restarted, and it was over 17 seconds later. North Carolina defeated Santa Clara in round two of the NCAA tournament by a score of 1-0 to advance. For Dellarose, the match-winner was her fourth goal of the season and first since early September.
“Tessa is incredible,” graduate goalkeeper Clare Gagne said. “She is one of the grittiest players on our team. She is so fit, so strong, and she’s always willing to do the extra thing for her team, whether it’s on the field or off the field. That’s something we’re all so grateful for.”
That it was Dellarose who ultimately found the elusive breakthrough goal symbolizes her and the team’s resilience.
