Emily Morris scored her fourth goal of the season in the 73rd minute as Wake Forest beat Stanford 1-0 on Friday night to advance to the program's first College Cup championship game.
Wake Forest (16-3-4), which will play North Carolina for the title on Monday, was picked to finish ninth in the ACC preseason poll after missing last year's NCAA tournament with a record 10-3-5 and a sixth place. end of the conference.
Three-time national champion Stanford (16-5-2) was hoping to return to the title game after losing to eventual champion Florida State last season to end a 36-game unbeaten streak.
Morris calmly volleyed a Sierra Sythe cross off the hands of Stanford goalkeeper Haley Craig and landed beyond the goal line before Stanford defender Elise Evans cleared it.
Craig kept the game within one goal with nine minutes left when he dove to his right to deny Caiya Hanks' attempt from close range.
Stanford's best scoring opportunity came in the first half when Wake Forest goalkeeper Valentina Amaral deflected Andrea Kitahata's shot off the post and the ball rolled across the goal line before defender Kristin Johnson cleared it.
The game was a rematch of Wake Forest's first win over a number one ranked team when it defeated the Cardinal 1-0 in September on a goal by Emily Colton.
North Carolina 3, Duke 0
Kate Faasse scored on an early penalty kick, Olivia Thomas added a first-half goal and North Carolina eliminated top seed Duke in the nightcap of the College Cup semifinals.
Faasse staked the second-seeded and eighth-ranked Tar Heels (21-5) to a 1-0 lead just 9:25 after a foul by Duke defender Nicole Chico. Faasse leads the nation with 20 goals.
North Carolina took a two-goal lead into halftime when Thomas received a pass from Bella Gaetino and scored at 23:55. It was Thomas' eighth goal of the season and Gaetino's second assist.
Maddie Dahlien made it 3-0 in the 59th minute with an assist from Faasse. It was Dahlien's first goal this season and Faasse's third assist.
Clare Gagne had five saves for the Tar Heels. Leah Freeman saved two shots for Duke.
North Carolina has appeared in all 43 NCAA tournaments and won 21 of them.
Duke (18-3-1) was playing in its fifth College Cup and first since 2017 with 29 total appearances. The Blue Devils entered as the top seed for the first time, but fell to 6-45-5 all-time against the Tar Heels.
Blue Devils coach Robbie Church previously announced he would retire at the end of the season and hand the reins to associate head coach Kieran Hall. He finishes with 398 career victories.
The Blue Devils (18-3-1) beat the Tar Heels twice during the regular season for the first time in program history before losing 2-1 to them in the ACC tournament championship game.
North Carolina beat Wake Forest 1-0 at home in their only meeting this season.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
