I still remember the chill in the November air when our women's soccer team stepped onto the field for that final championship match back in 1987. As someone who's covered North Carolina sports for over three decades now, I can confidently say that what happened during that championship series remains one of the most remarkable underdog stories in collegiate athletics. The statistics alone tell part of the tale - we were facing a team that had beaten us twice during the regular season, and our star forward Sarah Brownlee had suffered a torn ACL just two weeks before the playoffs began.

When Brownlee went down during our semifinal match against Virginia, I remember thinking our championship hopes had evaporated right there on the damp grass. The medical staff estimated she'd need at least six weeks of recovery time, yet here we were facing our toughest opponent without our top scorer who had netted 18 goals that season. What followed was something straight out of a Hollywood script, though the reality was far messier than any film would dare portray. Our coaching staff made the bold decision to shift from our traditional 4-3-3 formation to a more defensive 4-4-2 setup, a move that many commentators called "desperate" at the time. I'll admit even I had my doubts watching them take the field for game one without Brownlee's familiar number 9 jersey leading the attack.

The series unfolded like a tense drama, with each match swinging wildly between the two teams. We dropped the first game 2-0, then clawed back to win the second 1-0 in double overtime. The third match ended in a frustrating 1-1 draw, while the fourth saw us secure a narrow 2-1 victory. This brought us to that decisive fifth game with the series tied 2-2, the championship hanging in the balance. I can still picture the determination on our players' faces during warm-ups - there was something different in their eyes that afternoon, a quiet confidence that defied the odds stacked against them.

But even with Brownlee injured, our team came incredibly close to winning the championship earlier in the series when we took a 3-2 lead after four games. That moment when the final whistle blew in game four, securing our third win, created an electric atmosphere throughout the stadium. The stands were absolutely rocking with over 5,200 fans creating a wall of sound that seemed to lift our players right off their feet. What many people don't know is that our coaching staff had prepared for this exact scenario - they'd been studying game footage until 3 AM each night, identifying tiny weaknesses in our opponent's defensive structure that nobody else had spotted.

The final match itself was a masterpiece of tactical discipline and raw emotion. We scored early through a beautifully worked set piece in the 18th minute, then spent the remaining 72 minutes defending as if our lives depended on it. I've never seen a team work so cohesively under pressure - every player knew exactly where to be, when to press, when to drop back. When the final whistle blew, the explosion of joy from our bench players was something I'll carry with me forever. They'd achieved what everyone thought was impossible, winning 1-0 and securing the championship with a 3-2 series victory.

Looking back now, what strikes me most about that 1987 victory isn't just the tactical brilliance or the individual heroics, but how it fundamentally changed women's collegiate soccer in North Carolina. Applications to our soccer program increased by 43% the following year, and attendance at women's matches doubled within two seasons. That team proved that heart and strategy could overcome even the most daunting obstacles, a lesson that continues to inspire athletes across our state to this day. Sometimes I still watch the grainy footage of that final game and marvel at what they accomplished against all odds.