Women's Soccer Sloppily Defeats Wake

More than 1,800 people, most hidden under umbrellas and raincoats, watched UNC defeat the Demon Deacons 1-0 at Fetzer Field in a game littered with missed finishes and bad decisions.

The win, coupled with Friday's 4-1 beating of Florida State (9-4 overall, 3-1 in the ACC), gave UNC coach Anson Dorrance his 499th career victory.

"Actually, it was not a very attractive game," Dorrance said. "I was not proud of our performance. We just didn't play with the kind of sharpness that we need to play with if we're going to be a team that achieves its potential."

The lone goal came less than three minutes into the game.

Catherine Reddick' s corner kick, the first corner of the match, bounced off the heads of Leslie Gaston and Anne Remy before sophomore midfielder Maggie Tomecka headed it in.

Tomecka led North Carolina

(12-0, 4-0) with four shots.

"She's becoming a dominant personality," Dorrance said. "She wins 95 percent of her head balls. If there were some glimmers of bright spots in the performance today, Maggie would certainly be one."

At the time of Tomecka's goal, it looked like UNC would run the Demon Deacons (6-4-1, 2-1) into the ground. And even though the Tar Heels controlled the ball and limited Wake to five shots for the game, none of the North Carolina's 17 other shots found the back of the net.

"We wanted to go at them, put them under pressure, just basically run our butts off until we can't run anymore," said senior midfielder Jena Kluegel. "Today wasn't particularly great. But that can be fixed."

The Tar Heels looked more impressive in Friday's victory against FSU. North Carolina scored on four of its 18 shots.

UNC outran the Seminoles, connecting with long and short passes and dictated the game's tempo.

Kluegel began the scoring in the 11th minute with a header from the right goal line.

In the second half, Alyssa Ramsey and Anne Remy put the game out of the FSU's reach with goals just 42 seconds apart.

"We're starting to come together," Tomecka said. "We're starting to combine a lot more with our passes and our attack has been really good."

The weekend's victories avenged last year's losses to FSU and Wake. It was the first time UNC had lost back-to-back ACC games.

"It's a little redemption," Kluegel said. "Especially, after last year's losing three ACC games and since it never happened before. I think we were very focused."

Thursday, North Carolina faces Clemson, the other ACC team that defeated the Tar Heels last year.

It will be Dorrance's first crack at his 500th win, an unparalleled mark in collegiate women's soccer.

But Dorrance dismisses the accomplishment, crediting past and current UNC players for his achievements.

"This is absolutely one game at a time, one season at a time," Dorrance said. "We've had so many incredible players; we ended up with winning streaks we couldn't even fathom and championship runs that border on the absurd."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.