In its season opener, the No. 10 North Carolina women’s soccer team pulled away in the second half to defeat No. 11 Tennessee, 3-0.
What happened?
The Volunteers opened the match in the Tar Heels’ attacking third, yet UNC’s defense neutralized the threat with its back line defense. In the 7th minute, the Tar Heels attempted to counter, yet first-year Tori DellaPeruta’s strike was handled by Tennessee goalkeeper Ally Zazzara.
UNC earned its first corner kick moments later and the ball found its way to the far side and into the legs of junior Sam Meza. Meza played a ball into first-year Tessa Dellarose, but her shot sailed high.
Following a long stretch of solid defensive play, the Tar Heels earned another corner kick in the 26th minute, but when Meza’s secondary cross found senior Tori Hansen, her header attempt rolled left of the net.
With 10 minutes to play, the UNC attack broke into the Tennessee box, but sophomore Emily Murphy’s attempt was deflected by Zazzara and kicked away at the goal line by the Volunteer defense. Hansen’s rebound attempt was also unsuccessful, and the score remained 0-0.
UNC opened up the scoring in the 39th minute. After an over-the-top pass was played into sophomore Ruby Grant, her header attempt was saved before senior Aleigh Gambone followed the miss to find the back of the net to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Tar Heels raced out of the break, and DellaPeruta had two chances that just missed. For the first time in a while, Tennessee had a chance to equalize, yet senior goalkeeper Marz Josephson made a leaping save to knock the Volunteers' attempt over the crossbar. On a Tennessee corner, Josephson made another save in just her first few minutes of action.
After a number of attempts from Isabel Cox were saved, the Tar Heels broke through in the 66th minute when Meza played a cross into Hansen, who headed the ball into the bottom left corner to put UNC up 2-0.
