The No. 2 North Carolina field hockey team (4-0, 0-0 ACC) earned its first shutout of the season against Penn (0-2, 0-0 Ivy League), defeating the Quakers 4-0 in the ACC-Ivy Challenge.
What happened?
The Tar Heels made their presence known early with first-year Ryleigh Heck making the first goal of the first quarter to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead.
With six minutes left in the second quarter, another Tar Heel goal was recorded by fifth-year senior Erin Matson. Matson scored her fifth goal of the season to give UNC the 2-0 lead, which came after the second unsuccessful penalty corner two minutes prior. Less than a minute later, North Carolina scored another goal thanks to Kiersten Thomassey, whose first goal of the season gave the Tar Heels a 3-0 lead.
At the start of the third period, UNC drew two penalty corners, but the Tar Heels were still unable to earn any points off a corner. However, sixth-year Meredith Sholder found the back of the goal to put the Tar Heels up 4-0 within the first two minutes of the period.
Penn earned its third penalty but still was unsuccessful and stagnated at 4-0. Late in the third period, the Tar Heels earned a penalty. It was taken by Heck, who connected with first-year Sietske Brüning to complete the play but the call was overturned as the ball was too high to count.
In the last two minutes of the game, juniors Mia Leonhardt and Steph Weber made a few shots to attempt to advance the score, but all three were saved and the score remained at 4-0.
Who stood out?
First-year Ryleigh Heck put her mark on the game, making the first goal just two minutes into the game off an assist from first-year Sietske Brüning. The goal was Heck’s third in four games so far this season.
