UNC falls to Duke on home turf: first ACC home loss in 11 years

When North Carolina trailed 1-0 for most of the first half of Sunday's women's soccer game A-- the only time all season the Tar Heels had been behind - the team didn't worry.

When Duke came out of halftime firing three straight shots to try to break a 1-1 tie, the Tar Heels didn't flinch.

But when North Carolina again found itself trailing, 2-1, with two minutes left in the game, it was too late to respond.

Duke rebuked UNC's frantic final charge, and the Blue Devils emerged with an emotional 2-1 victory - the first time any ACC team has beaten North Carolina at Fetzer Field since 1994.

"In the first half, if a team scores, I'm not really concerned because we're not playing for a 0-0 tie," said Head Coach Anson Dorrance. "The odds of us getting shut out are remote."

The odds of much of the game's proceedings were remote. No. 1 ranked North Carolina (13-1, 5-1 in the ACC) had scored first in each game this year and had not given up more than one goal in any game.

Yet fans had to figure that if any team were to stop UNC's regular season dominance, it would be the Blue Devils (9-2-1, 3-2-0).

Duke was responsible for the 1994 loss, and remains the only ACC team to have beaten the Tar Heels at home in an ACC regular season match.

"You feel pressure all the time when you play Carolina," Duke goalie Allison Lipsher said. "I was just kind of freaking out, thinking, 'Don't let them score, whatever you do.'"

In the 11 years since Duke's 1994 victory, UNC has lost three games at Fetzer Field, but they were all to nonconference opponents and came either early or late in the season.

"Our program wants to get to that level," said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church, who wasn't confident of the outcome until the final horn sounded.

"I thought, 'It's not enough, when's the clock going to run out?'" he said. "We moved a player back, and I thought we handled that like a mature group."

Church's team played like it wasn't going to succumb to any streaks.

"If you're tentative against Carolina, they'll bury you," he said. "We can't get caught up in what the shot total is. Those things work out if you just hang with them."

After the game, Duke midfielder Rebecca Moros, who scored both of her team's goals, said she just wanted to play the next game.

The Tar Heels felt the same way after their historic loss. Winning streaks come and go. But a two-game losing streak - it's only happened once in the past 20 years - would be cause for worry.

 

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