North Carolina’s field hockey team is motivated by the past but determined not to be tied to it.
As UNC prepares to enter the NCAA Tournament as the overall No. 1 seed this weekend against No. 11 Stanford, its seniors undoubtedly remember losing to Maryland in the national championship game two years in a row.
But as they look to lead the Tar Heels into the postseason, coach Karen Shelton is quick to point out that this team isn’t inhibited by past failures.
“We can turn it into motivation, but I don’t want them thinking about last year and what happened last year,” she said. “This is a new team. Maryland, they lost two players from last year’s team. We lost five players from last year’s team. This is a new group with a new mentality.”
That mentality is one that, Shelton said, is as confident, determined and well-organized as any of her teams have ever had. This year’s team has done nothing but excel. She and her players said they don’t think that the pressure of the postseason will change that.
There are high expectations this year for the 20-1 UNC field hockey team, as there always are. UNC just won its 18th conference championship and has played in the national championship game four out of the last five years.
Those expectations might weigh on the Tar Heels if their expectations for themselves weren’t even higher.
“I don’t expect anything less (than excellence) this season,” said senior Caitlin Van Sickle, who won her third consecutive ACC Defensive Player of the Year award this week. “This is one of the best teams that I’ve ever been on. The expectations are high, and if we don’t reach our ultimate goal then we will be disappointed. But I’m fully confident that we’ll be there.”
When Van Sickle and her class were freshmen, in 2009, the Tar Heels defeated Maryland 3-2 for the title. But that doesn’t mean winning this year’s title is any less important for them. The seniors this year have done their best to convey that sense of urgency to the freshmen.
