Women's soccer tops Dukes

The opening minutes of Sunday’s game against James Madison must have seemed like déjà vu to Crystal Dunn.

Just as she had against Jackson State on Friday, Dunn gathered a ball in the 18-yard box and finished clinically to give North Carolina a 1-0 lead.

Unlike Friday’s 5-0 rout of the Tigers, though, Dunn and the Tar Heels needed a pair of second-half goals to close out a 3-1 win against a stingy Dukes team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Fetzer Field on Sunday.

“(JMU) fought us tooth and nail, and that (middle) part of the game they actually won,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said.

“That was a wonderful performance for us in the second half, and I’m pleased that we won the game.”

Dunn, Kealia Ohai and Meghan Klingenberg gashed the Dukes down the sideline for much of the match, using their pace and agility to create opportunities in the Tar Heels’ offensive third.

Ohai’s seventh-minute streak down the right sideline set up Dunn’s opening tally, as the freshman forward weaved her way to the touchline before slotting the ball back to Dunn, who turned and fired into the upper right corner of the goal from six yards out.

But UNC failed to bury a critical second score, allowing JMU to hang around and take advantage of a Tar Heels defensive miscue midway through the first half.

North Carolina keeper Hannah Daly charged a bouncing long ball 35 yards from her goal, but her clear attempt deflected off Rachel Wood to JMU’s Lauren Wilson, who deposited the loose ball into the open net to tie the score.

The equalizer seemed to ignite the underdog Dukes, who looked the stronger team for the remainder of the half as they shut off the flanks and threatened to bag a second goal before the break.

“You can talk as much as you want about what the confidence level is going into playing against kids that are future national team and Olympians, but when you get on the field and start chasing them around, it’s a whole different thing,” JMU coach David Lombardo said.

“All of a sudden, we’re 1-1 with them, and you start believing that all the things we’ve been talking about may be a possibility.”

But UNC renewed its efforts to attack down the sidelines in the second half and reaped immediate dividends. Less than five minutes into the half, Ohai slid the ball to an overlapping Klingenberg on the left side, freeing the senior midfielder to swing a ball across to Amber Brooks, who headed home from six yards away to put UNC up 2-1.

Dunn then pushed the margin to two just less than 15 minutes later, finishing off a dizzying sequence of shots and deflections inside the box with a crack into the bottom left netting.

“I think the difference between the end of the first half and the second half is that commitment,” Dorrance said. “I think we were committed in the second half to playing a lot better.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.