South Carolina's run to the Women's College Cup ended Friday night at Orlando City Stadium with a 2-0 loss to the Pac-12 champion Stanford Cardinal.
Stanford reminded the soccer world why it owns the No. 1 offense in the nation by out-hustling and out-passing the Gamecocks at every turn en route to its 21st consecutive victory of 2017. A pair of goals from midfielder Jordan DiBiasi clinched Stanford's fourth national title game berth and sent the Gamecocks back to Columbia one win shy of their first.
"Credit to Stanford, they won everything," head coach Shelley Smith said. "They beat us to balls and won their tackles. They came in with urgency and we looked a little flat. A lot had to do with us being the new team here, there is a difference. I told the players, it's experience and we will build from that."
The Cardinal dominated ball possession from start to finish, created frequent scoring chances in close range of Mikayla Krzeczowski and squashed any and all attempts by South Carolina to gain territory in the 18-yard box. Krzeczowski posted five key saves for the Gamecocks, but had no chance on DiBiasi's close header off a 10th-minute free kick and close shot in the 26th that deflected off Gamecock midfielder Lindsey Lane before finding the net.
Meaghan Carrigan tallied South Carolina's only shot on net of the game, heading a cross from Ryan Gareis in the eighth minute that was easily gobbled up by Stanford goalkeeper Alison Jahansouz. At the final whistle, the shot chart read 17-5 in Stanford's favor.
"Their offense was smooth, fluid," Grace Fisk said of Stanford. "They knew positions, where they should be, ball went out wide, they had numerous options in the box. They caused us problems, they knew how to pull us apart. We didn’t play how we could have, but Stanford did very well at pulling us apart and playing their game."
Coming into Friday's game, South Carolina was 2-0-0 when being outshot in 2017.
With the win, Stanford moves on to Sunday's national championship game against the winner of Friday night's Duke-UCLA matchup. The Cardinal reached three consecutive finals from 2009 to 2011, falling to North Carolina and Notre Dame in their first two tries before defeating Duke in the third for their first national title.
Friday's loss marked the final NCAA appearances of South Carolina seniors Lindsey Lane, Anna Conklin, Meaghan Carrigan, Dominique Babbitt, Lauren Jankowski and Savannah McCaskill.
"Hopefully players like Savannah (McCaskill) will be able to come back and know that they prepared our team to compete in another college cup and give a better first game," Smith said.