Women's soccer washes out scoring drought

The clock kept ticking.

Each passing second marked one less the North Carolina women’s soccer team (3-2-1, 0-0-0 ACC) had to score in the Friday night match against No. 7 Penn State (4-1-0, 0-0-0 Big Ten), and marked one more in a UNC scoring drought that had lasted more than 300 minutes.

Finally, in double overtime, sophomore midfielder Joanna Boyles got the ball and saw her chance. Her teammate, sophomore Amber Munerlyn, streaked down the field with only one defender on her hip.

“If you get the ball anywhere in the path of her, she will get to it,” Boyles said.

Boyles launched the ball to the other side of the field where Munerlyn tracked it down and raced toward the near side of the goal. As the keeper closed off her angle, Munerlyn kept her composure and launched a shot past her outstretched hands to the far side of the net for the 1-0 win.

And just like that, the narrative of the No. 14 Tar Heels’ season shifted.

“That was a huge, huge goal,” Boyles said. “We really needed that win just to kind of reset our season and put that behind us.”

That goal not only earned UNC a statement win against a top-10 team, but also injected a massive amount of confidence into a young team. That was apparent on Sunday in their 2-1 victory against No. 18 Arkansas (3-2-1, 0-0-0 SEC).

In their game against the Razorbacks, the Tar Heels equaled their scoring production for the entire season up to that point. UNC outshot Arkansas 22-4 and dominated possession.

“I think everyone was on the same page, and that’s what made the difference,” said junior forward Summer Green. “You could see a lot of people were playing with confidence.”

Green scored the first goal for UNC in the 16th minute. She caught the Razorback keeper out of position and launched a shot from the left corner of the box high and into the net.

“I think you’re seeing the re-emergence of Summer Green,” said coach Anson Dorrance. “I thought she played with wonderful confidence today.

“If we can get Summer on track, we have a legitimate scoring threat in every game.”

Arkansas managed to fight back and tie the game in the 18th minute off of a terrific throw-in that was tapped high in the air and then whipped to the far side of the net. But UNC responded. Freshman Annie Kingman found a loose cross in the box from fellow freshman Jewel Christian and buried it in the left side of the net to take the lead back for good in the 38th minute.

Neither player started.

“Our depth is legit; we can go 16 to 17 players deep,” Dorrance said. “Our subs basically won the game for us.”

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