Looking to maintain its dominant record over Virginia Tech (0-3, 0-2 ACC), the North Carolina women’s soccer team (2-0, 2-0 ACC) secured a 1-0 home victory against the Hokies on Sunday.
What happened?
North Carolina started the game well with the first shot by midfielder Brianna Pinto to the bottom center, which was saved by the Hokie goalkeeper, Alia Skinner.
UNC midfielder Taylor Otto committed a foul at the ninth minute, resulting in the Hokies getting a direct free kick that missed. Just a couple minutes later, a North Carolina corner kick by first-year Paige Tolentino missed long, followed less than three minutes later by another, also missing long.
The breakthrough for the Tar Heels came in the 15th minute when Pinto scored the first goal of the game, with an assist by first-year forward Sam Meza. Another close shot by Pinto followed just four minutes later, but it was saved by Skinner.
The remainder of the half featured some good looks at goal by UNC's Maggie Pierce, Izzy Brown and Maycee Bell, as well as two corner kicks from Pierce and first-year Talia Dellaperuta. Ultimately, though, the first half ended with North Carolina up 1-0.
Having not seen much action yet due to the Tar Heels’ impressive defense, UNC goalkeeper Claudia Dickey made her first, and only, save of the game about 11 minutes into the second half.
Forward Isabel Cox narrowly missed a shot midway through the second half, hitting the right post after a corner kick from Dellaperuta. Although there were multiple shots and corner kicks taken by the Tar Heels, they couldn’t seem to get anything past Skinner in the second half. The game ended with North Carolina winning 1-0.
