UNC field hockey thwarted by Maryland's Katie O'Donnell

WINSTON-SALEM — The North Carolina field hockey team couldn’t find a way to contain Maryland’s Katie O’Donnell in Sunday’s ACC Championship game.

The reigning National Player of the Year and Honda Award winner was instrumental in leading a fast, attacking, high-pressure defense that shut out the Tar Heels for the game’s final 44 minutes.

“They’re fast, especially up front,” UNC coach Karen Shelton said. “They just put us under a lot of pressure.”

O’Donnell added three assists and a goal as the Terrapins dismantled UNC 5-2.

The five goals UNC allowed trumped its previous season-high of three, yielded against the Terrapins two weeks ago.

O’Donnell harassed the Tar Heel backfield all game long, forcing its players to make hasty decisions that often resulted in turnovers.

Despite O’Donnell’s dominance, Shelton said she thought UNC defended the ACC Tournament’s MVP well, forcing her teammates to do most of the scoring.

“I actually thought that we contained her pretty well,” Shelton said. “I thought we did a nice job on her, and we got hurt by the rest of the team.”

When O’Donnell wasn’t slicing through the North Carolina defense, she was passing to teammate Jemma Buckley. Two of her three goals were assisted by the reigning Honda Award winner.

Maryland’s pressure caused Shelton to go with a more offensively structured game plan in the second half, switching to a three-person backfield instead of four.

“That made us more vulnerable and obviously makes it harder,” sophomore Caitlin Van Sickle said. “Their speed is really just hard to deal with.”

Shelton said after the game that she should’ve stuck with the original defensive structure because the change allowed Maryland to get more scoring chances and control possession.

“We probably should have stuck with our bread-and-butter,” Shelton said. ”We were down a goal and just thought that in the championship game, you need to take some chances.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.