Make That 13

Is this a good record: 126-12-3?

That's a winning percentage of a .917. Is that good too?

Those were the gaudy numbers that the University of North Carolina's women's soccer team brought into yesterday's NCAA tournament Round of 16 game against Princeton. The next-highest number of NCAA wins in women's soccer belongs to Notre Dame, with 69.

North Carolina's history in women's soccer is better than UConn's history in women's basketball. The Huskies are 114-18 in the NCAA women's basketball tournament, a winning percentage of only .864.

UConn has won 11 NCAA women's basketball championships. North Carolina has won 21 NCAA women's soccer championships, meaning the Tar Heels are one away from doubling up the Huskies.

And they won't get it this year.

In what is unquestionably one of the greatest wins Princeton Athletics has seen, the Princeton women's soccer team defeated mighty North Carolina 2-1 yesterday, winning it on Abby Givens' goal 8:18 into overtime.

Make it 126-13-3.

It's hard to overstate the magnitude of beating North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. It's not something that happens too often, and it happens before the Final Four even less.

UNC has played in every NCAA women's soccer tournament, all 36 of them now, and this will be just the ninth time that the Tar Heels have not reached the national semifinals.

As for this year, UNC is the No. 2 ranked team in the country and went 8-0-2 in the ACC, a league that sent eight teams to the NCAA tournament.

So yeah, it's huge. What makes it more astonishing is that Princeton was one penalty kick away from not getting the chance to play UNC in the first place.

Before TB gets to that, let him rant for a second. PKs are an incredibly dumb way of deciding the outcome of a game. Why in the world would a game be allowed to end that way?

Yeah, yeah. It's because without PKs, a game could last forever, going multiple overtimes and all. So what? If you know you have to score to win, you have to take chances eventually.

If anything, do what field hockey does and take players off the field as you get to OT. Anything would be better than PKs, whether it's the World Cup or the NCAA tournament.

That wasn't the case Friday, though, when Princeton played North Carolina State in the second round. The Tigers led 1-0 on freshman Carolyne Davidson's goal before a late goal tied it, and then the teams played two scoreless overtimes. That left it up to penalty kicks to decide which team would advance.

Princeton missed its first. NC State made its first four, meaning that if the Wolfpack could make the next one, the game would be over. Instead? Natalie Grossi made the save, keeping the game going.

It would have ended there had Tomi Kennedy not converted the next one, which she did. Both teams would miss the next one, and then, after another Grossi save, Davidson finally ended it.

Yeah. It's a terrible system, but if you're going to use it, you might as well win.

And that left Princeton to take on North Carolina, who just happened to be 13-0-2 in its last 15 games. North Carolina had four straight shutouts heading into the game, and in fact opponents had scored just four goals - that's one, two, three, four goals - in that 15-game unbeaten streak.

Princeton then doubled that total. Princeton was outshot in this one 24-8, and Grossi was strong again, making seven saves.

The game-winner came on on bit of a counter, when Givens found herself with just enough room to maneuver the ball past UNC goalkeeper Samantha Leshnak. All that was left was a race to the goal line between the ball and a UNC defender. The ball would win.

With that, Princeton had pulled off a stunner. Again, TigerBlog is not overstating the historical significance of this win.

The Tigers now play in the quarterfinals, next weekend at UCLA, who beat Virginia 2-1 last night on a late goal, after the teams traded goals 30 second apart five minutes in. Should Princeton win that one, it would get to the Final Four.

North Carolina has been to 27 Final Fours. Princeton has been to one, back in 2004. It's the only time an Ivy League team has reached the women's soccer Final Four.

Can this team repeat that feat?

Getting this far is an incredible accomplishment. Especially when yesterday's opponent is added in to the equation.

This was, after all, the University of North Carolina women's soccer team. That's the mightiest of the mighty.

And there was Princeton. Ahead. Then tied. Then going toe-to-toe the rest of the heart-stopping way, eventually winning.

This Princeton team has been special all season. It's now 16-2-1 for the year and has spent pretty much the entire season ranked in the top 25. Now it's one of just eight teams left playing.

And it has a win over North Carolina.

Yeah, that's one of the great NCAA tournament wins any Princeton team has ever had.