UNC field hockey drops ACC Championship game to Maryland

WINSTON-SALEM — In a battle of the two top-seeded teams in the country, it was the No. 1 offense that beat out the country’s best defense.

The No. 2 North Carolina field hockey team and its No. 1-ranked defense lost 5-2 in the ACC Championship game to No. 1 Maryland at Wake Forest’s Kentner Stadium on Sunday.

The win gave the Terrapins and their high-powered offense their third consecutive ACC title and handed the Tar Heels only their second loss of the season, both coming to Maryland.

“Maryland is awfully good,” UNC coach Karen Shelton said.

“They’re the No. 1 team in the country, and when they play as well as they did today, they’re going to be very, very tough to beat.”

Maryland was led by Jemma Buckley, who had three goals, and tournament MVP Katie O’Donnell, who tallied a goal and three assists.

Shelton said she was proud of her team for battling, but in the end, errors cost UNC.

“Both teams played very hard,” Shelton said. “Obviously we made some critical mistakes that cost us some goals.”

The costly mistakes started early as UNC’s Caitlin Van Sickle’s turnover led to Maryland’s first goal. O’Donnell took the ball and crossed it to Buckley, who deflected it past Tar Heel goalie Jackie Kintzer, giving the Terrapins the lead less than three minutes into the game.

But North Carolina quickly answered with a Jaclyn Radvany goal five minutes later. Both teams then capitalized on corners — first with Buckley scoring after having her initial shot blocked and then Van Sickle re-tied the game with a shot off a corner that beat the Maryland goalie.

Then 10 minutes into the second half, UNC played the ball back into their own circle to Meghan Dawson.

But Witmer was able to steal the ball from Dawson, avoid the onrushing Kintzer and dish it to O’Donnell, who shot it into the empty net for the 4-2 lead.

“That was a turning point in the game,” Shelton said. “Especially the nature of the way that we gave up the goal — just a really bad defensive mistake.”

North Carolina was unable to recover and despite going to a more offensive structure and pulling its goalie with eight and a half minutes to go, the Tar Heels were shut out the rest of the game.

Maryland added a goal off a corner while the Tar Heels’ were playing without Kintzer to cement the 5-2 victory.

The Tar Heels got to the championship game following a 1-0 overtime victory against No. 3 Virginia on Friday as Kelsey Kolojejchick scored the winner after Van Sickle intercepted a pass to create an odd-man rush.

Despite Sunday’s subsequent loss, Shelton was very proud of the fact that her team got to the title game at all.

“You don’t have to win the ACC Championship, you get to the next step and you have to win, you have to survive and advance,” Shelton said. “But last year we didn’t make it to the ACC Championship game, so last year to this year we made a step.”

With the NCAA Tournament beginning next weekend, North Carolina is hoping to learn from the loss and improve in time for a run at repeating as national champions.

“It doesn’t feel good ever to lose a game, but we know that with a loss comes a valuable lesson,” captain Elizabeth Drazdowski said. “Yeah we might have lost the ACC Championship, but we’re going into NCAAs knowing a lot more about ourselves and our team and what works and what doesn’t work.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.