In postseason games, blowouts are rarely the expected outcome.

It certainly was not what the Illinois soccer team anticipated going into its second-round match against second-seeded North Carolina in the NCAA tournament on Nov. 16. And after a goal in just the second minute, it was a promising start for the Illini.

The Tar Heels, though, followed with a goal only a few minutes later. A key moment then occurred in the 29th minute, as junior midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo, the Illini’s leading scorer, left the game with an injury and did not return. Another goal after that put North Carolina on top 2-1 heading into a halftime.

Despite the turn of events, Illinois had hopes that it could pull off a come-from-behind win as it did many times before this season.

“The goal we scored very early in the game was sort of as we scripted it — that was going to be the way to open things up, to get into that space in front of them and play outside their three backs,” head coach Janet Rayfield said. “When Vanessa left, it was much harder for us to possess the ball in the spaces that we wanted to, but we certainly did a pretty good job of that in the first half.”

But the second half was a much different story. Illinois was outscored 7-1 en route to a season-ending 9-2 loss in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The lopsided score did not bother Rayfield as much as the point in the game where things turned ugly did.

“We didn’t compete in the way that I thought we needed to, and I think after we gave up a couple of goals then we just were overwhelmed and weren’t sure exactly how to handle ourselves,” Rayfield said. “It’s certainly a lesson we’ll learn from.”

She added that she told the team that it needed to accept the loss without making excuses, and that it needed to look at what caused the proverbial wheels to fall off and how that could have been avoided.

While it was a disappointing end to a season highlighted by ups and downs, the Illini found many positives over the past few months, including the development of the players, both younger and older.

“You just look at the improvement of players over their career, the experience our young players got and the moments of success we had, and I think you have to call this a successful season,” Rayfield said.

Possibly the biggest achievement for the Illini this season was their return to the Big Ten Tournament championship game after facing adversity and tough competition in the first two rounds.

“The way I define success is, ‘Did this team achieve and compete to their potential?’” Rayfield said. “I think if you look at the Big Ten Tournament, to come back from two goals and a player down and to beat the No. 3 team in the country (Penn State), who will compete for a national championship, you have to say that that’s another step forward for this program.”

Charlie can be reached at [email protected].