Charlotte Craddock’s goal says what her words don’t have to

There is little point, Charlotte Craddock believes, to saying what’s already been said.

She declined to speak with the assembled field hockey media Friday night at Henry Stadium after No. 1 North Carolina dispatched No. 5 Syracuse, 3-0. For what could she have added, with more volume or eloquent panache, than the incendiary goal she scored to put UNC up for good?

“That’s the coolest goal I’ve seen all year,” said senior forward Loren Shealy, who scored UNC’s second goal. “That was pretty sweet.”

“Her goal was amazing,” junior forward Casey Di Nardo said. “She juked, like, three people. I was inside laughing, but mentally hoping that she would score. It was a great goal.”

“Spectacular,” Coach Karen Shelton said. “She makes it look easy, doesn’t she?”

The senior forward authored her latest seeing-is-believing moment little more than nine minutes into Friday night’s game.

Craddock blitzed the Syracuse back line with a swooping, one-handed, 30-yard jaunt down the far sideline and barreled toward the Orange’s cage. When Syracuse goalkeeper Jess Jecko charged off her line, Craddock curled around her with unhurried ease and tucked the ball into the vacant net. Her team-leading fifth goal of the season marked the third straight game she scored the first goal.

The reigning ACC Field Hockey Player of the Week prefers to vocalize in precisely this fashion, with timely goals and sparkling runs rather than postgame blather. That doesn’t suit the 23-year-old England native. Interview requests often go unfilled, but rarely does the opponent’s net when Craddock stalks the field.

“She adds a dimension to our team that’s pretty special,” Shelton said.

Since joining the program in 2012, Craddock has scored more goals (44) and game-winning goals (14) through Friday night’s game than any Tar Heel in that span. She has scored 1.05 goals-per-game in 42 career matches, outpacing UNC’s all-time leading scorer Cindy Werley, who scored 84 goals in 90 games from 1993 to 1997. Craddock owns UNC’s sophomore scoring record with 26 goals and found the net five times in UNC’s three NCAA tournament games in 2013.

But Craddock and Shelton have often sparred, the coach questioning her player’s commitment and the player criticizing her coach’s demanding approach. The chill thawed this spring when Craddock told Shelton that she wanted nothing more than a national title. She would do what was right, what was necessary. And, Shelton said, she has.

“Attitude is a wonderful thing: It can be a bad thing, and it can be a good thing,” Shelton said. “Charlotte has grown up an awful lot.”

Craddock rededicated herself to training and rediscovered her affinity for the game. She doubles as a conductor on the forward line, Shealy and Di Nardo said: communicating emphatically, directing traffic, urging runs toward the corner or opposing net.

“She’s a joy to play with because she’s very constructive and to the point — very blunt on the field, tells you where to be — which scores goals, ultimately,” Di Nardo said.

It also makes the game more fun and compliance far easier.

“She goes with everything wholeheartedly,” Di Nardo said. “I think she’s really loving the team right now.”

Her smile suggests it. So, too, does her torrid goal-scoring streak. But her words?

“I’m telling you right now: You’re not going to get Char,” Shealy said to reporters, chuckling. “It’s not going to happen.”

They could only get her for 70 minutes, confined to Craddock’s artistry within the field’s white lines. It required no further utterance.

The star had already spoken.

sports@dailytarheel.com