Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech falls in PKs to UNC in Round of 32
November 21, 2025 | Women's Soccer
The Red Raiders fell 4-3 to the defending national champions
FORT WORTH -- Macy Blackburn's 60th minute equalizer helped No. 6 Texas Tech Soccer take the defending national champions, North Carolina, to PKs before the Tar Heels ended the Red Raiders season (1-1, 4-3 PKs) in the NCAA Round of 32 Friday night at TCUs Garvey-Rosenthal Stadium.
Despite conceding first, Texas Tech (14-2-5) pushed the 23-time champions to the brink Friday, using the 60th minute banger goal from Blackburn off a perfect feed from Parsons to equalize the match at one-all.
The goal combined with a 58th-minute strike from Linda Ullmark were the lone in the 120 minutes of action, as the match headed to PKs.
In the penalty kicks, UNC (13-6-1) scored on four of its five attempts including a fifth-round make from Olvia Thomas. Thomas, the 2024 Most Outstanding Player in the College cup put the Red Raider season on the brink.
The make, combined with a miss in the fifth round, propelled the unranked Tar Heels to the Round of 16 where No. 2 TCU will await on Monday afternoon.
After the Tar Heels (13-6-1) recorded five of the six total shots in the first half of play, the Red Raiders nearly struck first off, a corner in the 48th minute when a Taylor Zdrojewski near post header just missed the Tar Heel net.
The Tar went ahead just five seconds in the 58th minute when a pair of perfect passes from Bella Devey and Lauren Malsom found a streaking Ulmark who ripped a rocket past a diving Faith Nguyen and into the top-left corner of the net.
Down for the first time since an Oct. 23 loss to Colorado in Boulder, the Red Raiders immediately responded less than three minutes later (two minutes and 43 seconds) when a short corner played by Senior captain Peyton Parsons found Blackburn. The fellow captain ripped a rising shot that went bar-down and past a diving Hannah Johann.
The goal was Blackburn's fifth of the season and her 10th career in her 77th and final game as a Red Raider. Blackburn finishes her career with 66 total points, the most by a defender in program history and sixth-most all time Red Raider.
Just a matter moments later, the Red Raiders had the best chance of the match [that didn't result in a goal] when a 2V1 between Freshman Raliegh Greason and Zdrojewski found the Red Raiders leading scorer (Zdroewski) 1V1 with Johann.
Zdrojewski tried to take an extra touch allowing one of the Tar Heel defenders to close the gap and block the shot away.
Armed with the momentum, the Red Raiders continued to push the Tar Heels to the brink using shots from Blackburn and Bahr to pull to within 10-to-9 on shot attempts.
With neither side able to gain much traction the match continued to wind down deep into the 83rd minute before the Tar Heels nearly went ahead when a Kate Fosse shot was punched wide of the net by a sprawling Faith Nguyen. The rebound fell to UNCs Catilin Mara whose follow up shot went wide. The 2024 Mac Hermann award winner, Faasse, had just three shots on the night. Â
Nguyen made six saves in her 41st and final match as a Red Raider. She closes her Tech career an impressive 27-7-7 (.824) all-time and with 19 clean sheets. Nguyen allowed a goal or fewer in 32 of her 41 career matches (78 percent) including 17 of the Red Raiders 21 matches this season.
With less than 90 seconds, the Tar Heels got back-to-back corners, but a key blocked shot sent the NCAA Round of 32 match to overtime.
In the first OT session, the Red Raiders had the first shot attempt of the period, a 93rd-minute chance from Raleigh Greason that was blocked by the UNC backline.
After a pair of UNC shots resulted in one save from Nugyen, the match headed to a second 10-minute overtime period.
Following two more saves from Nguyen in the second overtime, Tech nearly won the game with one minute and 58 seconds left when Greason again found herself with a strong scoring opportunity but her low line drive shot was saved by Johann.
For the second-straight match contested at Garvey-Rosenthal Stadium (Tech also went to PKs against Baylor in the Big 12 Quarterfinals), the Red Raiders fell by a singular attempt in PKs.
HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
"You have to credit North Carolina and its coaching staff. Damon [Nahas], Chris
"Big Bird" Ducar and his assistants do a great job. They came to play like we came to play, neither team backed down and in the end, we both ran out of time, and the game had to be settled in PKs. Give them credit, they won it and will advance. UNC will be a worthy adversary for whichever advancing team they get. So we want to congratulate them on advancing. Second of all what you saw tonight from our team is what you saw from us all year, that we were a work-in-progress. This was one of our best performances of the season tonight. It's a tough way to win and a brutal way to lose. We tied the game, but someone needs to go on. We're really bummed for these seniors, including the two right here [Blackburn and Parsons]. They gave so much to this program all these years and to the game tonight, and we wouldn't be here without them. This class has been an incredible boost to our program. They mean so much to us as people and of course they're tremendous players. Most of them will go on and play Soccer after they college. It's a sad day to see them leave but a proud day to congratulate them on all they've done for us and for Texas Tech Athletics. It was a great run, unfortunately it had to come to an end tonight."
