No. 2 field hockey team handles Duke

No. 2 North Carolina gave two clinics at Henry Stadium on Saturday afternoon: a free one for kids following a costly one for Duke.

The Tar Heels scored in the opening moments of the game and did not relent, tallying five goals in the first half en route to a 7-0 victory against the Blue Devils. The game was UNC’s first ACC win of the season.

Duke’s loss, meanwhile, is their second in conference play, slotting them in last place in the ACC.

Freshman Kelsey Kolojejchick netted her 11th and 12th goals of the season for the Tar Heels, while five other UNC players added a goal of their own for the Tar Heels, who outshot the Blue Devils 23-3.

North Carolina (10-0, 1-0) wasted no time in applying pressure to the Blue Devils’ defense, driving into the Duke shooting circle and drawing a penalty corner just 66 seconds into the game.

Senior Melanie Brill took the corner feed and launched a low shot, which freshman Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany deflected into the top of the goal to give the Tar Heels an early 1-0 lead and ease many of the nerves generated by the rivalry match-up.

“(An early goal) takes all kinds of pressure off,” coach Karen Shelton said. “We wanted to have a quick start, and the fact that we executed the corner that we called perfectly just let our team play with some more flow.”

Radvany’s goal was the first of five penalty corner conversions in the game for the Tar Heels, continuing a season-long trend of strong execution on the set piece.

“It’s a free shot on goal, so it’s great when it works,” senior Dani Forword said of the penalty corner.

“We have confidence in our penalty corners, that we can actually get a goal from it.”

After drawing first blood, the Tar Heels remained hungry, testing Duke goalkeeper Samantha Nelson several times before drawing a second penalty corner.

Brill again fired a shot on net off the corner play, but this time, her shot struck Duke defender Rhian Jones.

The ball ricocheted off Jones and directly onto the stick of Kolojejchick, who slapped it out of the air and into the net to double the Tar Heels’ advantage.

Kolojejchick, who is stationed at the back post for the penalty corner, has made a habit of tallying garbage goals off the corner this season.

“Kelsey’s come in and been able to produce, both in scoring just from our initial option to that side, and also on rebounds,” Shelton said.

The Tar Heels added goals on unassisted efforts from Charlotte Verstraten and Katelyn Falgowski, as well as another rebound goal from Kolojejchick, which pushed the margin to 5-0 at halftime.

Forword and Brill each added goals off penalty corners after the break to establish the final score.

After the game, UNC players and coaches laughed and smiled as they put on a brief skills clinic for children, while the Blue Devils headed somberly home to Durham.

“Anybody that’s associated with Carolina understands the Duke rivalry, so it’s an awfully sweet win for our team and our program to play as well as we did in the first 35 minutes and come away with such a convincing, decisive victory,” Shelton said.


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.