Field hockey nabs eighth straight shutout

WINSTON-SALEM — Meghan Dawson knew it was coming.

Heading into No. 2 North Carolina field hockey’s rivalry game at Wake Forest, the sophomore back knew the WFU strategy was a simple one — pick on her.

“Wake was trying to make her handle the ball,” coach Karen Shelton said. “They picked her out as what we call the bunny, the weak player.”

But Dawson was up to the challenge, as the “bunny” led UNC (11-0, 2-0 ACC) to its eighth straight shutout with a 3-0 win Saturday at Kentner Stadium.

“It was fine,” Dawson said with a shrug. “We practice it in practice, so it was OK.”

Every time Dawson received the ball in the backfield, Wake Forest sent defenders running at her, hoping to pressure her into a mistake.

And in the second half, Wake Forest (7-3, 1-2) got its chance. An errant pass from Illse Davids found a Wake Forest attacker in a one-versus-one break against Dawson.

Dawson didn’t even break a sweat, corralling the attacker long enough for the rest of the defense to get set.

“She completely broke it down,” goalie Jackie Kintzer said. “She was calm, patient.”

Kintzer had plenty of gratitude — and for good reason. Against a top-five opponent in Wake Forest, Kintzer had to face only six shots and made four saves.

“They know I’m standing, so they try and counteract that by shooting anywhere they could as hard as they could,” Kintzer said. “I just had to be ready. The defense played well and gave me shots I could handle.”

For the season, UNC has allowed only two goals and hasn’t been scored on since Sept. 4.

“Defend to win — that’s one of our main points,” Dawson said. “We always try to defend. If it’s 1-0, we can win.”

On the offensive side of the ball, UNC capitalized on three of its 12 penalty corners.

The Tar Heels attempted a flashy double-fake play with their first penalty corner. The play fell apart, and UNC was quick to get back to basics.

On UNC’s third penalty corner, senior captain Dani Forword ditched the trickery, took the penalty corner herself and ripped a rocket into the back of the Wake Forest net for UNC’s first goal.

With UNC ahead, Wake Forest started to press offensively, and the Demon Deacons repeatedly missed passes and turned the ball over. A hefty chunk of those mistakes were the result of UNC’s high-pressure defense.

“We like to take pride in that. We want to pressure people so they make mistakes,” Shelton said. “Some of those mistakes were unforced.”

Jaclyn Radvany and Melanie Brill chipped in goals to increase the margin, and UNC walked away with the regular-season sweep of Wake Forest.

It was fitting for UNC to continue its clean-sheet streak against the Deacons, who were the last to score against the Tar Heels more than a month ago.

UNC will face Boston College on Saturday, and should it blank the Eagles, it will tie the ACC record for consecutive shutouts with nine.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.