After his team defeated Maryland on Saturday for the third time in as many weeks, North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance was not shy about the challenge of facing a team three times in one season.“It’s a royal pain,” he said. “It’s the nature of the quality of the league that we’re going to face a team possibly three times. And it’s no fun, trust me.”
North Carolina needed 67 minutes and 26 shots to score its first goal against High Point on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.Sunday was a different story as Courtney Jones put the Tar Heels (19-3-1) up for good in just the ninth minute of its 4-0 second round win against Georgia (15-6-1).
The last time North Carolina won a national championship, the Tar Heels were rewarded the following season by dropping completely off the preseason Top 25 Associated Press Poll.The team did lose 91 percent of its scoring and 184 of 185 games started from the season before. Its top returning scorer, David Noel, averaged only 3.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in the Tar Heels’ championship run in 2005.
Saturday was a new chapter in the one-sided series between North Carolina and Virginia and had to involve one of the most interesting plot twists in the 36-chapter history.The ending was no different — UNC was able to pull out a 2-1 victory in front of its home crowd to remain undefeated in the series.
After a 2-1 overtime win against injury-riddled Duke, North Carolina head coach Anson Dorrance wondered if his team was going to be able to have the same success against a healthy Wake Forest team.His concerns were alleviated early Sunday.
Nearly 82 minutes into the clash between the No. 1 North Carolina women’s soccer team and No. 13 Texas A&M, Tobin Heath found herself in a familiar position.In a scoreless game where both teams were making it hard to even get a shot off, Heath had already seen a potential assist to Casey Nogueira broken up at the last second and a potential assist to Jessica McDonald sail high off McDonald’s foot.But Heath made the same play again, this time paying off as Nikki Washington was able to score the first goal of the game in UNC’s 2-0 win against the Aggies Saturday.
Nearly 82 minutes into the clash between the No. 1 North Carolina women’s soccer team and No. 13 Texas A&M, Tobin Heath found herself in a familiar position.In a scoreless game where both teams were making it hard to even get a shot off, Heath had already seen a potential assist to Casey Nogueira broken up at the last second and a potential assist to Jessica McDonald sail high off McDonald’s foot.But Heath made the same play again, this time paying off as Nikki Washington was able to score the first goal of the game in UNC’s 2-0 win against the Aggies Saturday.
One of the finest tenures in the history of North Carolina men's tennis came to an end Sunday after the Tar Heels' 7-0 win against Clemson. Half of the No. 11 Tar Heels were honored before the match for their accomplishments in the past four years. That includes reaching the highest national ranking in school history last season and setting single season records in wins and conference wins in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
The No. 8 North Carolina tennis team was suddenly in a compromising position after Emil Lindgren and Sebastian Ripoll of Virginia Commonwealth ended the rally attempt of seniors Lenny Gullan and David Stone. The Tar Heels (7-2) had lost the doubles point for the fourth time this season and had yet to win a match in which they were faced with that type of deficit. But Benjamin Carlotti, with the help of fellow senior Gullan, insisted that the similarities end there. "Right before we all went on the courts I went and talked to the guys," he said.
Senior Jeff Schroeder does not have the match experience of many sophomores. In fact, Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mideast Region rookie of the year Stefan Hardy appeared in more than twice as many matches last year as Schroeder did as a sophomore in 2005-06. But the senior walk-on from Raleigh is still viewed as a veteran by his teammates. "We all look to him," said fellow senior Sandeep Daiya. "When he works hard, we all work harder."
