UNC women's field hockey team gets two close wins this weekend

Coming into the weekend, the No. 1 North Carolina field hockey team (9-0, 1-0 ACC) had won its first seven games by an average margin of more than four goals.

But a pair of one-goal victories this weekend taught the Tar Heels how to maintain their composure in close games.

On Saturday, UNC defeated No. 13 Duke 1-0, led by a penalty-corner goal by Caitlin Van Sickle in the 61st minute. Then on Sunday, the Tar Heels again came out victorious by a difference of one goal, defeating No. 18 Stanford 2-1.

The pair of weekend games were the first of the year where North Carolina did not win by at least two goals.

“The fact that we could hang on to the one-goal victory is good,” UNC coach Karen Shelton said. “I think in both games we handled the clock at the end pretty well.”

North Carolina was particularly strong finishing out Sunday’s victory, as the Tar Heels controlled most of the second half after giving up a goal at the end of the first 35-minute period on a penalty corner.

“We had a one-goal lead late in the game and we didn’t give up a lot,” Shelton said. “We only gave up two shots on the day and one penalty corner so that’s a good defensive effort.”

Other than a hard-fought 3-1 victory against Old Dominion, the Tar Heels haven’t been tested much this year.

“To be honest with you, we grow more from games like this that are closer, where we’re under pressure than we do when we win 7-0,” Shelton said.

One of North Carolina’s biggest strengths is its defense, and its backs remained calm under the pressure of having a one-goal lead for the entire second half.

Van Sickle, who helps anchor the back line, was happy with how the defense handled the new challenge, and said the key to the defense’s success in the tight situations was just keeping things simple.

“I think just sticking to the process, two-touch passing and that just gets us through tough situations,” Van Sickle said.

“Obviously (the pressure is) in the back of your mind, but we just stuck to passing it around and making support runs for each other.”

Shelton believes that the close games are good experiences for her team and that the tight games will help them be prepared later in the season.

“It just makes us better and stronger and tougher and you want to be put under pressure now rather than in the tournament,” Shelton said.

With the Tar Heels near the half-way point of their schedule, senior Elizabeth Drazdowski thinks the two tough games were just what the team needed.

“It was really good to be challenged,” Drazdowski said. “I think that’s something our team really needs is to be challenged and put through some adversity.

“That’s the only way we’re going to grow is if we’re challenged and we have to work hard. That’s the way you learn, by when it’s not easy.”

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