Heels rout in NCAA tournament

For more than 600 minutes the UNC-Charlotte women's soccer team had allowed only one goal stifling its opponents on its way to six wins and an Atlantic-10 conference title.

And for most of the first half in Sunday's second round of the NCAA tournament the 49ers' defense was poised to continue its impressive streak against one of the most potent attacks in the country the No. 1-seeded North Carolina.

But once UNC's Rachel Wood scored off a rebound from Yael Averbuch's free kick late in the first half to break a 0-0 tie" UNC began to show it had finally solved the puzzle of Charlotte's defensive formation.

""The longer it takes us to get into an attack" then they're going to make something happen the more momentum it will be Tobin Heath said.

Once we established that towards the end of each half" we were pretty successful all around. That opened up opportunities to get crosses and shots.""

After the goal" the Tar Heels were able to create better spacing for themselves and found easier looks on the goal a big difference from the pressure they dealt with early in the game. UNC piled up 29 shots in the game 13 of those on goal.

The Tar Heels were able to capitalize as the game progressed" putting the game away with three second-half goals in a 4-0 win.

""There were times in the first half when Anson (Dorrance" UNC coach) wasn't happy with their speed of play and I'd like to think we had something to do with that Charlotte coach Jon Lipsitz said.

But I think over time as you saw the game go on" that they just athletically and technically could play at a level faster than we could.""

The illuminated No. 4 on the scoreboard Sunday brought UNC's weekend goal total to an impressive nine. The Tar Heels defeated Western Carolina 5-0 on Friday in their first-round NCAA game.

For Courtney Jones" Sunday's second-round game against Charlotte must have felt familiar.

The last time she played against the 49ers in her college debut on Aug. 22 she scored the second of UNC's five goals.

Sunday she bettered her effort from the early season match" scoring two goals in just her second NCAA Tournament game.

Her first goal proved the epitome of an unassisted goal.

Jones took control of the ball just before midfield and then proceeded to drive and slice through defenders for more than 50 yards before scoring from six yards out.

""Their defense pretty much opened up the entire pathway for me. They didn't really close down" so I just kept going" Jones said.

The goalie actually hesitated.She was about to come about and instead stepped back on her line.""

Perhaps it's just something about the nickname of the other team that inspires Jones to play so well against them. Her father also played for a team called the 49ers — the San Francisco franchise of the NFL.

Dorrance said Jones' dad inspires her play on the field. Jones put a stamp on the game with her physicality"" fighting for possession and trying to penetrate the defense.

""I'm not much of a technical player" so I have to use what I have Jones said. Strength using my upper body speed" going straight up per se.

""If I can I beat a defender like that"" I'm going to.""



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