Fresh off claiming its 19th ACC Championship against Syracuse on Sunday, the North Carolina field hockey team hoped to carry its momentum into the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In order to do so, the No. 1 Tar Heels would have to get past No. 15 Boston University, which earned an NCAA Tournament berth by defeating American in the Patriot League Championship and beating Fairfield 6-1 in the NCAA play-in game on Wednesday.
Both teams entered Saturday's contest at Francis E. Henry Stadium looking to continue their recent success, but UNC ultimately took the match 4-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.
After a moment of silence to honor the victims in the Paris terrorist attacks, the game got underway. Both teams started out strong, as the Tar Heels played strong defense throughout the entire first half and Terrier goalkeeper Cammy Jensen fought off UNC's strong offensive attack.
The Tar Heels gradually started to gain the upper hand on the Terriers as the half progressed, as senior midfielder Nina Notman netted her 13th goal of the season at the 13:52 mark. She scored again about four minutes later to give UNC a 2-0 lead.
After Notman’s second goal, the game remained scoreless until first-year midfielder Ashley Hoffman scored off a penalty corner at the 49:23 mark in the second half. About 10 minutes later, Hoffman scored again off another penalty corner to give North Carolina a comfortable 4-0 lead with almost 10 minutes remaining.
With the game seemingly in hand, Coach Karen Shelton elected to rest some of her starters and put the reserves in. Boston used this as an opportunity to make a comeback, as junior Amanda Cassera scored Boston’s first goal with about five minutes to go. Another goal by the Terriers about a minute later forced Shelton to put her starters back in the game.
The Terriers continued to fight back in the closing minutes. With about two minutes left, the Terriers had a chance to cut the deficit to one. But a shot by senior Sofi Laurito sailed wide right, effectively sealing the win for UNC.
