Averbuchs a win from dream

Sisters could play each other in final

Yael (pronounced Ya'el), a Hebrew name taken from a Biblical heroine, signifies strength. The Hebrew name Shira means "poem" or "song."

So, if the North Carolina and Stanford women's soccer teams win their College Cup semifinal games today in Cary, strength and poetry will meet Sunday in the form of two sisters, Yael and Shira Averbuch (pronounced A'ver'bush). Both are midfielders, Yael a senior for UNC, Shira a freshman for Stanford.

Quite apart from the meaning of their names, they bring both qualities to the game they love.

In one sense, their strength is reflected in how they view the prospect of meeting in the NCAA title game at WakeMed Soccer Park, though UNC must first get by UCLA and Stanford by top-ranked and unbeaten Notre Dame.

The thought makes neither sibling uncomfortable.

"I mean, it kind of adds a little pressure on me because I don't want to lose to my younger sister, but the chance to be on the same field as her would be absolutely amazing," the UNC All-American said in a telephone interview.

Though her sister plays sparingly for Stanford, any time in the title game would be spent in close proximity, perhaps butting heads.

"Yeaaahhh, I'd love that," Shira Averbuch said by phone after arriving in Cary. "That's the most fun."

Their poetry can be read in how they describe their similar styles of play. Both enjoy the creativity they can express by controlling and delivering the ball in the middle of the field with one-touch passes and give-and-go plays, or what Shira calls "pretty soccer."

"I would like to think that, when people watch us, they can point us out as very fluid players who with the ball create kind of a poetry," Shira said.

In fact, their learned artistry seemed like so much fun that they decided to put a series of ball-on-foot tricks on film last summer and set it to music. It's now on YouTube.

"We filmed it over a couple of afternoons," Shira said, "and what was even weirder was the fact that when we actually got it onto the computer and were editing it, we realized that you couldn't really tell the difference between the two of us."

She learned most of the moves from Yael, literally following her sister's footsteps as she has since they were girls. Yael said she took up the game when she was about 7. And that was that.

"I think it's kind of within my personality to become really serious about whatever I do, and that was the first organized sport or activity I became involved in," she said.

It was also the last.

"I just remember almost right from the beginning I decided I wanted to be a professional soccer player, and that was all I wanted to do it. I wouldn't play any other sports. I wouldn't do anything else," she said.

From the start, Yael meant "strength of conviction." Her mind was so set on soccer that until about the eighth grade, she believed she could major in soccer in college, said her mother, Gloria Averbuch. "She was so crestfallen when I explained to her, 'No, no, dear, you have to a pick an academic area.' She was stunned."

Early on, neither her mother nor father, Paul Friedman knew much about soccer, "knew anything about soccer, actually," Yael said. They were avid distance runners. "But they kind of learned with my sister and I, and it became the center of our family life, really," Yael said.

Gloria Averbuch has since written four books about soccer, including one with UNC coach Anson Dorrance and another titled, "Goal! The Ultimate Guide For Soccer Moms and Dads."

At UNC, Yael has started a school-record 103 straight games, in one of which she set an NCAA record by scoring a goal in the first four seconds of a game with a 55-yard opening kick against Yale (no pun intended).

In lieu of majoring in soccer, she eventually chose psychology as a major -- she's an Academic All-American -- and yet still plans to leave Carolina after this semester to play in the new Women's Professional Soccer league, hopefully for the New Jersey/New York franchise, Sky Blue. Her mom is the team's marketing and public relations director.

As much as Shira loves the game, her mind-set differs somewhat from Yael's. "I can see myself doing other things," she said. "I can see myself really enjoying Stanford as an academic school and really becoming involved in other parts of college life."

Each remains the other's best friend, but their mother understands that Sunday also could represent the passing of a chapter in life.

"When the club soccer ended, I said, 'I'm going to burn my lawn chair now.' But before I could do it, I sat on it, and it broke," Gloria Averbuch said. "And I kind of feel the same way [now], that the natural end of things will make itself known when, hopefully on Sunday, the two teams face off. And I'll realize the poetry of the moment, the grace of the moment, and it'll be OK."