UNC women's soccer held scoreless through two overtimes

When Rachel Wood’s powerful strike rattled the right goal post in the 77th minute Sunday, it was the closest North Carolina came to breaking its scoreless stalemate with No. 4 Wake Forest.

But like every other scoring bid that day, it wasn’t quite close enough.

Neither ACC soccer powerhouse could grab an edge in the 0-0 tie, and the day was defined by missed opportunities on both sides.

But for No. 10 UNC, the final result could have been far worse.

“Obviously we’re disappointed that we didn’t win the game, but we’re certainly not terribly upset with tying a quality team like Wake Forest,” coach Anson Dorrance said. “I think this means that we have the potential to compete with anyone.”

Much like Thursday’s 1-0 win against No. 3 Duke, UNC maintained an early presence in its opponent’s side of the field Sunday.

In fact, it only took a minute for the Tar Heels to break into the shots column. In the opening minutes, sophomore midfielder Crystal Dunn raced across the left side of Fetzer Field and delivered a cross to senior forward Courtney Jones.

But Jones’ shot was wide left, and that became a familiar sight for the Tar Heels, as they continued to miss out on early chances.

“We all worked so hard out there,” Wood said. “And it’s frustrating when you work so hard for each other to get the win, and then you’re hitting shots on the crossbar.”

In addition to outshooting Wake 15-8, UNC held the advantage in corner kicks 14-0, but those chances didn’t translate into goals.

Jones took most of the corners, and consistently the ball found itself entangled in the side netting.

“We worked on our corner kicks a bit today, but obviously we need to continue to work on them,” said Dorrance, who also saw his team post an 11-1 corner kick advantage against Duke on Thursday.

“I think that’s an area where we have potential to have great strength because we have some wonderful hitters.”

Of the 15 shots UNC took, only four were on goal, and those were quickly wrangled by Wake Forest goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe, who has nine shutouts this year.

Bledsoe joins Virginia’s Chantel Jones and Duke’s Tara Campbell as one of several highly regarded ACC goalies UNC has faced this season.

“She could easily be the best goalkeeper in this conference, which is blessed with great goalkeeping,” Dorrance said. “She might be the best in the country playing collegiately right now — that’s how good I think she is.”

Bledsoe was also stingy in the teams’ last meeting in the ACC tournament last year, allowing only one goal through regulation and two rounds of overtime.

With a similar game on Sunday, and a tight matchup a few days before with Duke, the ACC has displayed the strides it has made to catch up to — and even overtake — UNC in the polls.

The Tar Heels will face No. 9 Boston College on Thursday, another higher ranked ACC opponent.

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