It was impossible to reclaim the 25-0 winning record.
But an 11-0 shutout against Georgetown on Sunday seemed a fitting response to the North Carolina field hockey team's two-loss streak.
The home opener at Henry Stadium marked the highest-scoring win for the Tar Heels (2-2) since 2006.
""It's a relief to get back home and get a win under our belt"" said coach Karen Shelton. Nothing erases the bitterness of a loss better than a great team win.""
And UNC was coming off a particularly bitter 2-1 loss against No. 3 Wake Forest in double overtime Friday.
But Sunday" the Tar Heels dominated the offensive front" outshooting the Hoyas 32-1.
The win showcased an offensive arsenal armed with six scoring threats and six players contributing assists. Junior Illse Davids and senior Britt van Beek led all scorers with three goals apiece.
""I just worked off everyone's attitude"" Davids said. And today everyone was just goal-hungry.""
The prolific offense even featured some new faces"" as redshirt freshman Louise McNutt and sophomore Kiki Norbruis contributed their first career goals.
""We identified the fact that we were trying to thread too many needles and do in one pass what we needed to do in two passes" Shelton said. The team set up beautiful passing plays" and the result is 11 goals.""
The Tar Heels scored eight of those goals in the first half" beginning with an unassisted shot bounced into the goal by van Beek.
She contributed another goal less than five minutes later" racing across the goal and taking an open shot into the left corner.
""I was like" alright this game is going to be about two-touch passing and being productive in the circle" van Beek said. Coming out with two straight goals gave me a lot of confidence.""
Van Beek offered a spark to the second half offense as well" with a shot from the top of the circle into the lower right corner off an assist by Danielle Forword.
Norbruis who recorded her first goal in the first half scored another off a penalty corner with about eight minutes remaining.
Less than 25 seconds later redshirt freshman Elizabeth Stephens closed out the offensive show with a shot assisted by senior Kate Scholl.
Georgetown's inability to muster an offensive rally was encapsulated in its lone penalty corner taken with about five minutes remaining in the game.
Swinging her stick back to shoot" Hoya Kristen Volpe missed the ball by inches.
The two teams dallied back and forth in the final minutes of the game before the Tar Heels took their 11-0 victory.
""It was very high-energy today" coming off those two big losses" Davids said. And I thought that this was the game that was going to spark everything for our season as well.""
Shelton echoed the sentiment as she looked ahead to the opponents that lie ahead for UNC.
""We played Georgetown today"" Shelton said. But we have the ability and potential to do that against any team we play. It was Georgetown today — it could be Penn State next week.""
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