The signs appeared in an Oct. 27 overtime loss to unranked Old Dominion, Samantha Travers said. A certain intensity, the kind that the No. 3 North Carolina field hockey team usually captures, was missing from the game’s get-go.
The signs appeared once more Saturday afternoon, this time a bit more alarmingly, in a 1-0 loss to No. 2 Syracuse in New York, sending the Tar Heels to the postseason with two straight losses to end the regular season.
“In the beginning of the games, we’re not coming out soft, but the other teams look like they want it more than us,” said Travers, a junior back. “That’s something that we need to change.”
Syracuse (15-2, 4-2 ACC), which extended its home winning streak to 45 games, took advantage of UNC’s opening-gate stumble when Sarah Kerly beat Sassi Ammer at the near post. Kerly’s goal would stand amid a defensive stalemate, as UNC mustered a few choice scoring chances and just six shots against a tightfisted Syracuse defense.
“They’re tough at home,” said coach Karen Shelton. “We knew we had a tall task in front of us, and giving up an early goal didn’t help.”
Syracuse’s abrasive style didn’t help, either. The Orange outmuscled UNC (14-4, 3-3 ACC) in a tightly contested affair befitting of a top-three matchup.
“They’re a physical team, and I think they were a little more physical than we were,” Shelton said. “Those are things that we like to learn about ourselves. We’ve got to get tougher, we’ve got to play more physically and we have to play 70 minutes.”
UNC still finds itself squarely in the national-title hunt, Shelton said, but small fissures have crept into the Tar Heels’ armor. Turnovers and shoddy possession have replaced the pinpoint passing and unselfish play that keyed UNC’s eight-game win streak to begin the season.
The blueprint for success doesn’t need to be scrapped, though. One goal separated UNC and its opponents in all four of the Tar Heels’ losses, including an overtime defeat to current No. 1 Maryland.
