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The Daily Tar Heel

Freshman Reed contributes offense in standout performance

The No. 1 recruiting class in the nation belongs to North Carolina’s women’s lacrosse team. And when there is so much star power in a freshman class, it may be easy for one to get lost in the pack.

In the first two games of the season, freshman Carly Reed had not put up the stat line she was used to in high school. After tallying 475 goals in high school, Reed had only two goals through two games.

But in UNC’s 24-6 win against Canisius, Reed showed exactly what she is capable of, scoring goals with ease, contributing early offense in the blowout victory.

She tallied four goals in the first half and then added another with just fewer than 10 minutes left in the game. Reed said her standout performance is something she has been working toward.

“It’s definitely a good feeling coming off the field with five goals,” Reed said. “Today it just kinda clicked.”

Tar Heel coach Jenny Levy said that her team already has several players with the ability to score but that seeing Reed have a performance like that adds her name to the list of players who can put away goals.

“It’s a great confidence boost for her, and she’s working really hard and trying to become a consistent force offensively for us,” Levy said. “It’s good to see her finish on the opportunities that she had.

“She’s got some killer instinct as far as that goes.”

Sophomore Aly Messinger joined Reed in the onslaught on the Canisius goalie, scoring four first half goals as well. Messinger said that she could tell Reed was going to have a big game before the opening whistle even blew.

“(Reed) was ready to play, I mean she’s always ready to play, but she had a fire in her today,” Messinger said. “She did awesome, there’s nothing else you can say about her.”

Reed said that the transition from the high school game to the collegiate level makes things much more difficult and that defenses are much faster than she was used to in high school.

“At this level they crash on you so much faster in the middle,” Reed said. “So I’ve just been working on my speed and my hands, and today it just worked.”

For the first two games of UNC’s season, the No. 4 overall freshman in last year’s recruiting class thought defenses were moving faster. But Wednesday it was Reed who was leaving defenders huffing and puffing in her wake, as she repeatedly dropped her stick for the referee to check after slinging another goal into the back of the net.

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