UNC learns from close loss

If the North Carolina field hockey team has to lose overtime heartbreakers, coach Karen Shelton said now’s the time to get it over with.

And in its third game of the season, No. 2 UNC lost 1-0 in overtime to No. 7 Syracuse on Saturday.

“We ended up in a very tough game,” she said. “But we’d rather be exposed early than late.”

But the Tar Heels (3-1) came back on Sunday having learned their lesson. UNC returned to last weekend’s form and demolished Cornell, 6-1.

“We wanted to get back out there and play a good game,” Shelton said. “I think we did that to a certain extent, in terms of our consistency and discipline. We had a close loss but turned around and rebounded the next day.”

After losing what Shelton described as a footrace, UNC was forced to quickly compose itself for the next day’s battle and assess its shortcomings.

According to Shelton, the Tar Heels suffered from an inability to control the game’s tempo and a departure from the fundamentals, which her program stresses. She said those failures led to selfish play and unforced turnovers.

“We like to be able to control the tempo at times,” Shelton said. “I don’t mind playing up-tempo, but I think we don’t want to be in track meets with teams. We fell into that — into their game at their home field. What we needed to do was control the tempo and also play our passing game.”

So when UNC took the field against the Big Red, they had the simplest of goals — make passes, keep the ball and take shots — to rebound from the loss against Syracuse.

“It was an important loss early in the season for our team,” said Loren Shealy, who led the Tar Heels with two goals. “It helped us grow and learn our weaknesses. But obviously we were fired up going into today’s game.”

That much showed early on. It took just 30 seconds for UNC’s Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany to put one in the cage. Sinead Loughran followed less than five minutes later, rebounding and putting the ball past Big Red goalkeeper Carolyn Horner.

In the 11th minute, Shealy scored her first goal on an assist from freshman Emma Bozek. Bozek then got in the scoring column herself in the 22nd.

Brittany Thompson’s tip-in goal in the 29th minute for Cornell was her team’s first and only shot in the first half.

UNC took 18 shots in the opening period and 30 in the game. In contrast to this performance, the Big Red took only five — but all of them were on goal.

All but one of them, though, would be defied by UNC goalkeeper Sassi Ammer.

Shealy and Kelsey Kolojejchick both scored their second points in the second period.

In the 42nd minute, Shealy took advantage of a rebound off of a defender for another goal. Kolojejchick, who assisted Bozek’s goal in the first half, found herself finishing one of her own in the 68th.

As the team headed home from New York, Shelton characterized the weekend as a learning experience.

“I did see some improvement,” Shelton said. “We feel good about what we’ve done and what’s to come.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.