Dream fulfilled: Brownsville grad Dellarose plays key role in UNC’s 23rd women’s soccer championship
Tessa Dellarose reminisced about her days as a youth soccer player in Brownsville and all the hard work and time she put in over the years, and contemplated.
“I think my younger self, that girl would be very proud and very happy to know what we did this year,” Dellarose said.
What the Brownsville graduate did Monday night was earn the opportunity to hold and hoist the NCAA national championship trophy as a member of the North Carolina women’s soccer team.
Dellarose was a key cog in the Tar Heels’ run to a record 23rd national title, which culminated with a 1-0 victory over ACC rival Wake Forest in the final at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
Dellarose got a clear view of teammate Olivia Thomas’ second-half goal on a free kick that was the difference, raising her arms as she watched the ball curl in and find the net in the 62nd minute.
North Carolina hung on from there and Dellarose’s dream was fulfilled.
“It feels just incredible and also so surreal, knowing that we are the first team since 2012 to accomplish a national championship at a historic program such as this,” Dellarose said. “It’s almost unbelievable that we truly did it.
“It means a lot to all of us. We all love the university so much and we love each other so much. To be able to have done this together and bring the championship back home after so long was just such a great moment.”
Dellarose had found success on national and international teams, but had come up short of her ultimate goal at UNC in her first two years with the Tar Heels, losing in the final, 3-2, in double overtime, to UCLA her freshman year.
North Carolina would not be denied this time, even after it entered the tournament off a bitter 3-2 loss to Florida State in the ACC tournament final.
Dellarose played a huge role in the Tar Heels’ run through the NCAA tournament, coming up with late-game heroics twice; scoring the winning goal with 22 seconds left against Santa Clara in the second round and assisting on Kate Faasse’s game-winning goal in overtime against Penn State with a perfect corner kick off her powerful left foot.
Dellarose took a moment to reflect after Monday’s match.
“Even before I committed to UNC, even before high school at Brownsville, the goal is to go to college, and then when you’re in college, the goal is to be the best and be a national champion,” Dellarose said. “That’s why you come to a university like North Carolina, to be able to not only be here but to actually fulfill a lifelong goal.
“It’s something you dream of as a young athlete. It’s just really amazing. You really grasp how there’s such a small percentage of people who do play sports that not only get to play in college but then get to be a national champion. It’s just a great feeling.”
Dellarose was a phenom at Brownsville, scoring a still school-record 108 goals in three years and helping the Lady Falcons win their first WPIAL playoff match before moving on to play on a club team her senior year.
Her parents, Ron and Melinda Dellarose, were in attendance Monday night, and Ron looked back on his daughter’s journey.
“I watched her from when she was four years old, just every single day, practice and train,” Ron said, then added with a laugh, “Our picture frames downstairs are all busted up because she kicked the ball off the walls down there so many times.
“She did everything right, studied and committed her entire life to this dream. To see all the hard work, grit, determination, perseverance, the dreams she had when she was a little girl, and have it come to this … I just felt so incredibly happy for her. She earned it. The girl from Brownsville, Pennsylvania, she reached the pinnacle.”
The Dellarose family has also had other members find success in soccer. Tessa’s older sister, Talia, was a key player with her on the Brownsville teams that won multiple playoff matches. Her older brother, Colton, helped Brownsville’s boys soccer team reach the playoffs for the first time in 2017. All had great support from their parents, who Tessa found after Monday’s victory.
“They were so happy and so excited, not only for me but the team,” Tessa said. “They were in attendance for the national championship two years ago, so they saw the low of that one, and now got to see the high of this one. They got to stick around the rest of the night so we all celebrated.”
Dellarose recalled what was going through her mind before Monday night’s match began.
“I think all the antics leading up to it, the big walk out, the fireworks during the national anthem, the hype videos, all that definitely gets the nerves pumped up a little bit and snaps you back into reality, like this is the biggest stage, you are playing in the national championship.
“But then once the whistle blows you kind of focus back in and make it seem like just another game.”
Dellarose felt the loss to UCLA two years ago – she was a starter but wasn’t on the field when the Bruins scored the winning goal – helped her in the final against Wake Forest.
“Just having the experience of not only playing in the final, but also of playing through as long of a season as it takes to get to the final carried over for those of us who played in that game,” Dellarose said. “The experience came into play. We’d been on that stage. We knew what it felt like. We knew the emotions, the highs and lows, and how momentum can change on a dime.”
North Carolina survived a tense moment in the first half when Claire Gagne made an outstanding save to keep the match scoreless.
“Wake Forest had a lot of good chances in the first half,” Dellarose said. “They’re a good team, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Our goalkeeper, Claire, she’s been amazing all season, and her coming up big in a big moment on the biggest stage wasn’t surprising. She’s a phenomenal goalkeeper, and we knew she was going to be rising to the challenge.
“It was just about weathering the storm. They had us on our heels a little bit in the first half. We stayed together and made adjustments at halftime.
“We knew that we needed to keep working together, keep playing our game, keep playing with each other, that something would come if we could keep being resilient and persistent.”
That came with the goal by Thomas.
“She just had a great strike, and it was an awesome moment for her and for all of us,” Dellarose said. “For the past couple weeks, Olivia had been spending time after every single practice to take free kicks, practice free kicks in those exact spots. To see her put one in after all the hard work she had put in was really rewarding for us, and certainly for her, too, that it paid off.”
Ron Dellarose felt the seeds for UNC winning the national championship were planted before the season began.
“They asked Tessa to be a captain, and she embraced that role and ran with it,” Ron said. “That gave her some extra confidence that the coaches believed in her.
“I think another thing that was instrumental for her was the TST tournament over the summer, where she got to rub elbows, meet and play alongside some of her idols she grew up watching – Heather O’Reilly, Ali Krieger, Carli Lloyd, Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Wendy and Bill Palladino – just to be there with them and absorb their winning mentality was so beneficial for her coming off the spring and into the summer.”
Dellarose wound up playing an expanded role offensively.
“I did play a little bit of a different position this year,” Tessa said. “I was in a defensive-mid role, I wasn’t on the back line, so I was able to get up a little bit more. It was great to have a little bit more action in the attack. Anything I can do for the team I’m going to oblige. I just want to be able to contribute to the team in any way possible.”
Dellarose was one of the best players on the best team in the country. She was fifth on the team with 15 points, sixth in goals with four, including three game-winners, which was third, and tied for first in assists with seven. She also was one of just five players to play in every match and was third in minutes played.
That led to a prestigious honor.
“I was on the All-American fourth team,” said Dellarose, who as usual deflected credit to her teammates. “It’s very rewarding but individual accolades don’t come without a team performance and a great team culture. That was just a reflection of how good my teammates are and how good they make me look. I could not have been in position to get that honor without them.”
Dellarose provided much more than statistics and individual awards for her team, as Ron Dellarose pointed out.
“She’s always had an extraordinary work ethic. She’s always been in great shape and has never allowed herself to not be prepared, and I think that rubbed off on her teammates, especially the young girls coming in,” Ron said. “They kind of bonded as the season went along. They had really great players, but nobody that was selfish. They all had the same goal in mind, and that was to win, no matter who scored or who assisted. That goal was to win by any means, and that’s what they did.”
The Tar Heels’ march to the championship started with an 8-0 win over USC Upstate in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The second-round match against Santa Clara was much tougher, and in a scoreless tie when the final seconds of regulation were ticking away, the match seemed destined to head into overtime.
Then Dellarose stepped up.
“I saw Olivia Thoms get on the end of a through ball from Belle Sember, so I just started running towards the goal,” Dellarose said. “Kate Faasse kept the play alive, and I saw the ball pop out from the goalkeeper, so I just ran to it and lifted it over the other players’ feet and into the goal.
“It was a very special moment, and I was so happy to help the team keep our tournament run alive.”
The 1-0 win over the Broncos was followed by a 3-0 win over Minnesota to set up a quarterfinal match with Penn State, which went into overtime tied at 1-1.
Again, Dellarose stepped up in the clutch and delivered for her team with the corner kick that Faasse headed into the net.
“We were deciding who was going to take the corner kick and one of my teammates told me to go take it, and I wasn’t going to disagree with her, so I just went over there and was really trying to put it in a good spot to make sure I gave us a chance to finish it,” Dellarose said. “I honestly just kicked it as hard as I could into a good spot. Kate was there, where she needed to be, and had a great header into the net to take us back to the College Cup (soccer’s version of the Final Four) to go face Duke.
“It was a really awesome moment. Scoring a golden goal is unlike anything else. The immediate celebration was just so much fun because everyone was so excited. Also, Kate is a classmate of mine. We came in our freshmen year together. So to be able to connect with her on the goal to send us back to the College Cup was a really special moment.”
North Carolina romped over Duke, 3-0, to set up the final with Wake Forest.
“It was just a great display of team effort, of what we are about at North Carolina, how we want to play,” Dellarose said of the win over the Blue Devils. “It was an extremely dominant performance.”
After the win over Wake Forest, came the celebration with the trophy Dellarose so coveted.
“It’s really a one-of-a-kind feeling, something that you dream of and something I’d worked for for so long,” Dellarose said. “To finally have it pay off and to hold it, it’s extremely heavy, but in such a great way. It’s just so awesome to know that we did that. It’s part of history now, it’s permanent.
“We’ll forever be attached to the 2024 season and this championship.”