They gathered in the middle of the field at Henry Stadium moments after practice had ended, and each player on the North Carolina field hockey team extended an arm, then an index finger, as if to indicate where they’d like to finish in the upcoming ACC tournament.
Coach Karen Shelton stood in the huddle’s center. She didn’t deliver stirring words of motivation, but rather basic reminders — the team’s itinerary, what they should pack for their trip to Boston College.
UNC will stay in Boston through the end of the weekend win or lose, having been able only to book a flight for Sunday, the day of the championship game.
“The ACC has never been as strong as it’s been, and we’ve had tough, tough competition,” said Samantha Travers, a junior back. “Teams are just as good as us now.”
The tooth-and-nail spirit of the ACC’s regular season served as an appetizer for postseason play, which for UNC begins Thursday afternoon against No. 15 Wake Forest. Once a top-heavy conference led by UNC and Maryland, the ACC now owns five of the nation’s top 10 spots.
The Eagles, the tournament’s host, played well enough beyond their 1-5 conference record to secure the nation’s No. 11 ranking. And North Carolina fell to Duke, Maryland and Syracuse in one-goal losses on its way to becoming No. 3 in the country.
Shelton said her team views the ACC tournament as an opportunity to prepare for the NCAA Final Four, the presumptive destination for most North Carolina teams. But the Tar Heels capped their regular season with one-goal losses against Old Dominion and Syracuse, the team’s second two-game losing streak of the season. Before this season, North Carolina hadn’t dropped consecutive games since 2008.
Travers and Loren Shealy, a junior forward, said their team approached the Old Dominion and Syracuse matchups with a touch of deceleration. The Tar Heels expect to win every time they step on the field, they said, and an assumption of success backfired against two workmanlike teams in the Lady Monarchs and Orange.
A greater sense of urgency will go in the Tar Heels’ suitcases. They’ll also pack for a full weekend, for 40-degree temperatures, and for games that aren’t for faint-hearted ACC teams.
