In the 76th minute of the No. 2 North Carolina women’s soccer team’s match with No. 4 Maryland, junior forward Emmalie Pfankuch dribbled the ball past the final Terrapin defender. With just the goalie separating her from a score, she fired off a shot.
The ball hit the post.
Haunted by lackluster finishes and missed opportunities Sunday at Fetzer Field, the Tar Heels (14-2-1, 6-2 ACC) lost an 80-minute lead and fell to Maryland (13-2-1, 5-2-1) 2-1 for the first time in program history.
UNC struggled to finish shots all game long, and coach Anson Dorrance, who has now lost just 38 games in his 32-year tenure at North Carolina, was quick to acknowledge the huge number of chances his team had to seal the game.
“Finishing is the absolute hardest thing to do in this game, and the second-hardest thing to do is the final pass,” Dorrance said. “I’m not going to pretend for a second that those opportunities were easy to finish. But I think we had enough to certainly win the game.”
In the fifth minute of the game, a failed Maryland pass allowed freshman forward Crystal Dunn to connect with striker Courtney Jones, who slipped the ball past the Terrapin goalie and into the left corner of the net.
The early UNC goal put Maryland on its toes, and the flustered Terrapins racked up 11 offside penalties, including three in a two-minute span, in their desperate attempt to tie the score.
“Their game plan was to just dump balls over the top and run onto them,” Dorrance said. “Obviously, if that’s your game plan, you’re going to take some risks to try to run in and time it properly.”
The Terrapins were down two starters as a result of red cards in their previous game against Wake Forest, and Maryland struggled to keep possession throughout the match.
