Tar Heels win big against Highlanders

Just less than 10 minutes into North Carolina’s 8-0 victory against Radford, striker Dani Forword drove through the Highlander defense and lifted the ball into the upper right-hand portion of the net.

The goal increased the Tar Heels’ lead to 2-0 and forced Radford coach Jeff Woods to call time out. For Forword, the goal was the first of two for the game, but it was just her fourth on the season.

“It’s a great relief,” Forword said of doubling her season tally.

“It’s always nice when you’re working hard up front just to get that goal in the back of the net.”

While coach Karen Shelton was happy to see Forword score, she stressed that the senior captain contributes more to the team than just scoring.

“She draws a crowd, and you can see that she has tremendous skill,” Shelton said.

“So when she gets the ball, it opens other people up. While early on in the season, she hasn’t scored as many goals as she would like, she’s creating things for the rest of the team.”

The goals came as part of an offensive onslaught for the Tar Heels. North Carolina dominated play from the opening whistle, scoring three goals on 19 first-half shots.

UNC was even more efficient in the second half.

“Their goalkeeper was coming out and blocking a lot of our shots in the first half, and I think we were slow to adjust to what she was doing, and therefore she was being successful,” Shelton said.

“I think we played much better (in the second half), and we were able to get around the goalie.”

On the rare occasion that the Highlanders were able to maintain possession in the offensive zone, the UNC backline was quick to take the ball away.

The Tar Heels yielded just two shots the entire game, neither of which were on goal.

“Going into this last series, we wanted to get four shutouts, and we came away with four shutouts,” Shelton said.

“I’m pleased for the defense, and I think we’re growing as a unit and hopefully that’s going to pay dividends later on.”

Senior Melanie Brill scored first for the Tar Heels, converting on a penalty corner 2:35 into the game. It was the second of six penalty corners North Carolina was awarded in the first half.

The scoring was rounded out by goals from Elizabeth Drazdowski, Elizabeth Stephens, Kelsey Kolojejchick and Illse Davids, who scored twice.

Still, Kolojejchick felt the team could have had more.

“Even with the shot percentage that we had, I think we could have put even more in,” she said.

“Sometimes we’d be attacking and attacking, just not getting anything out of it.”

Next on tap for the Tar Heels is a Friday evening clash with traditional powerhouse Old Dominion at Henry Stadium.

Though the Monarchs have lost four in a row, two games were by one goal deficits and all came to top-10 squads.

“They are really good,” Shelton said.

“We never will underestimate Old Dominion. It’s been too many years, and we have too much respect for their program to think that it’s going to be easy.”

The game is the first leg of a home-and-home to be played between the two teams this season.

The second game will be played at Old Dominion on Oct. 31.

“It’s going to be a battle on Friday, and we all know that,” Davids said.

“We’re anticipating a big game, and we can’t wait.”


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.