CARY, N.C. — After laying it all on the field and advancing to Sunday’s final, there’s just one more thing for UCLA and Florida State to do: duke it out for the national championship. 

MORE: UCLA tops Virginia on PKs | FSU holds off Tech | UVA takes pride despite defeat

The two sides will head back out onto the field for the last time in 2013, with everything at stake, as both programs seek their first title.

Abby Dahlkemper

“There’s one more game and we have been through quite a process – not only the playoffs and the path we’ve taken to get here but the whole season,” UCLA head coach Amanda Cromwell said. “I am very proud of the girls and what they have accomplished. I am very excited for a great game [Sunday].”

While fatigue is sure to be a factor after all the energy expelled on Friday, the ACC vs. Pac-12 matchup is another enthralling encounter on paper (3 p.m. ET, ESPNU). UCLA’s commanding defense and sturdy midfield will look to slow down Florida State’s Dagny Brynjarsdottir and Jamia Fields, while somehow cracking the Seminoles outstanding back line.

Players with full and youth national team will dot the field: midfielders Sam Mewis, Sarah Killion, Jenna Richmond, Lauren Kaskie and center back Abby Dahlkemper (for UCLA), while Florida State boasts Brynjarsdottir, center back Kassey Kallman and defender Megan Campbell to name a few.

For the ACC power, one of the keys for Sunday will be about waiting for chances, especially against a defense as good as UCLA’s.

“One of the things that we pride ourselves on is patience, and if in a game we allow the tempo in a game to be too high then it becomes a game of transition, which is what you saw [Friday] night, and then the game comes down to athletic quality,” Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian said. “I think that in the game tomorrow, my hope is that we are going to be able to vary our attack a little bit.  Sometimes use our athletic quality to run at their back line and put them under pressure, but also step on the ball and slow the tempo of the game, which is something that we have done over the course of the season very well.”

UCLA approach the final matchup ready to take on another quality opponent in the tournament. Thus far in the NCAA tourney, the Bruins have dispatched Stanford, North Carolina and Virginia.

There’s no doubt how impressive that run is, but Cromwell actually goes back to a midseason road trip that has helped propel them to this point.

“Going to Notre Dame’s tournament [in September] and coming to North Carolina for Duke’s tournament was huge for our preparation,” she said. “We were exposed to some things that we needed to be exposed to. Obviously, our one loss this season was to UNC, and I feel that we showed that we redeemed ourselves and came back and fought a great game. You have to play the best teams in the country to get better.”

The Seminole seniors, including All-Americans Kassey Kallman and Kelsey Wys, will lean on the experience of previous College Cup disappointments and emerge victorious.

“This is a position that we have been in before, but we have a great coaching staff and they put in the time and get us prepared,” Wys said. “I think that once we have our game plan ahead of us, if me and Kassey [Kallman] can step up and be leaders as well as others who have been here in the past, if we execute our game plan we will be alright.”

photo credit: nc-soccer.com

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