Tar Heel field hockey blanks Longwood

With games against two top-10 opponents this weekend, the No. 2 North Carolina field hockey team showed no signs of looking ahead in its last regular season home game.

Instead, its focus was all on Longwood — which quickly became clear in UNC’s 9-0 rout of the Lancers.

To begin the game, the Tar Heels were sluggish on offense, but UNC eventually found its momentum right before halftime, and they scored three goals in less than 10 minutes.

Two of the first-half goals were from sophomore Nina Notman, who found the back of the cage on a penalty corner and was unassisted on her second goal. The other goal came from junior Samantha Travers, which was also off a penalty corner.

Redshirt freshman Caroline Plyler capped off the offensive onslaught with her first career goal.

“It was just really exciting to know that I had all the support of my teammates on the bench,” Plyler said.

“It was nice that it was a (penalty) stroke, so it was not that hard.”

Notman said getting the first goal of the game helped UNC establish a rhythm that continued to the end of the game.

“When you shoot the first goal, you get rolling,” Notman said. “The team gets more confident and braver to try things out more.”

In the second half, the Tar Heels came out aggressively on the offensive end. Sophomore Casey Di Nardo opened up the half with two goals in the first 12 minutes.

Di Nardo has now scored seven goals in her last three games. She noted that production has come from a more assertive mindset.

“We’ve been working in practice on being scrappier and diving for balls,” Di Nardo said. “I’ve just been trying to put everything in the back of the net that I can get a touch on.”

Coach Karen Shelton said Longwood presented challenges early, but the Tar Heels were able to respond.

“I was pleased with the number of goals we scored,” Shelton said. “Longwood gave us a really solid 15 minutes and made it tough for us and I think we were able to make some adjustments and once we got that first goal, it opened up things for us.”

The Tar Heels stifled Longwood on defense for the entire game. The Lancers were only able to muster five shots on goal and only three penalty corners. The majority of the second half was spent on the Tar Heels’ side of the field.

“We’re looking forward to tomorrow, but it’s been a rough week for us coming off a weekend game to then a mid-week game,” Shelton said.

“It’s a little bit out of our routine. But I think it was a good game for our last home game of the year.”

sports@dailytarheel.com