COLLEGE TOWN, FL (WTXL) — Three national championships. Three years. Just two programs. The No. 1 Tar Heels travel to Tallahassee to face FSU Friday night.
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Three national championships. Three years. Just two programs.
The No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels travel to Tallahassee Friday night to face the Florida State Seminoles in a showdown between the two most dominant programs in women's college soccer.
The Seminoles started this run by winning the national championship in 2023. North Carolina answered with a national championship in 2024 — before FSU took the crown back last season. Now the two national powers meet again, with the Tar Heels entering Tallahassee as the No. 1 team in the country.
FSU soccer head coach Brian Pensky said the rivalry between the two programs runs far deeper than the past three years.
"It's not just the last three years, right. It's the last 25+ years of the rivalry of North Carolina soccer and Florida State soccer so the game means something different to the players in Garnet and the players in light blue… It's always a battle. It's always a war. It's always a game that elicits the most high-intensity actions physically, and then we can't really measure it, but also emotionally from our players." Pensky said.
For the Seminoles, Friday night is also an opportunity to see how the defending national champions stack up against the No. 1 team in the country — in front of their home crowd.
"I'm super excited. I mean, I never thought I'd have the opportunity to play UNC, especially coming from my old school, so it's kind of crazy. Like, I haven't really registered yet. We're playing UNC, the number one team in the country, on Friday, but I think coming off the Clemson game, I think we're ready, and I think we're excited for it, and I'm excited, especially." FSU midfielder/forward Sam Erbach said.
FSU and North Carolina kick off Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Seminole Soccer Complex.
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