North Carolina women's soccer team defeats N.C. State in a 3-0 shutout

RALEIGH — Visiting N.C. State on Friday, the North Carolina women’s soccer team found itself at home in Wolfpack territory.

The No. 3 Tar Heels (10-1-1, 2-1 ACC) plowed through the physical but porous N.C. State defense, testing goalkeeper Kim Kern with 11 shots en route to a decisive 3-0 victory.

“Our team comes out ready to play,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. “And we have some very aggressive personalities. That entire midfield is a bunch of little velociraptors. They run around wanting to chew everything up around them, and they’re very tough to play against.”

Early in the match, though, shots were dying in the goal box, and the game seemed destined to turn into a low-scoring affair.

But UNC broke through 31 minutes into the first half as a throw-in and a flick set up a tough-angle goal for freshman forward Kealia Ohai, whose strike just touched the net inside the left goal post.

The goal sent the Tar Heels into halftime with a 1-0 lead, and they entered the second 45-minute frame with the same high level of intensity, determined to further widen that margin. At the 63 minute mark, junior forward Courtney Jones accomplished just that.

With assists from senior defender Rachel Givan and freshman forward Elizabeth Burchenal, Jones launched a 22-yard rocket through the thin Wolfpack defense and into the net.

This goal stood out to Dorrance as one of the more spectacular feats of the night, and it didn’t surprise him that Jones delivered it.

“Courtney Jones, she shoots the ball like a man,” Dorrance said. “She hits it with huge power.”

The abundance of UNC scoring opportunities was, in part, made possible through the work of the team’s defenders. Sparked by the return of the injured Givan, the Tar Heels held N.C. State (7-5, 1-2) to only six shots. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t tested.

Within the final minute of the first half, the Wolfpack made a bid to break the Tar Heel shutout. But UNC goalkeeper Hannah Daly stymied its efforts, recording two saves, one after the other, as the clock wound down.

The defense became even stingier in the second half, holding N.C. State to just two shots. And with a header by redshirt sophomore Rachel Wood that pushed the advantage to three, the game was all but decided in the 72nd minute.

“I think we played well in the first half,” Jones said. “But we made a few corrections, and as you can see, that really worked out for us.”

The Tar Heels will continue their trek through ACC territory on Friday at Virginia, where they’ll likely give the Cavaliers a taste of the aggressiveness that suited them so well in Raleigh — the kind of aggressiveness that a coach loves to see in his players.

“We are a high-energy team,” Dorrance said. “We commit ourselves. We’re forcing the team that plays against us to play at a much faster pace.

“They can sort of hang in there for a while, but it’s really tough for teams that aren’t accustomed to playing under this kind of pressure or this type of speed to hang in there for the entire match.”

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