Tar Heels struggle offensively in loss to Virginia Tech

In the past two weeks, the North Carolina women’s soccer team had managed to navigate through a stretch of formidable matchups against ranked ACC opponents, coming out relatively unscathed in wins against Duke and Boston College and a scoreless tie against Wake Forest.

But in each and every game, the Tar Heels failed to score until the second period — if they scored at all — surviving by the skin of their teeth with late heroics.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, in Sunday’s 1-0 loss against unranked Virginia Tech, a second-half surge wasn’t enough to net them a win.

“They dominated the first half against us and created several chances,” coach Anson Dorrance said. “We dominated the second half, but ironically they scored one in that second period.

“But I don’t think the result was entirely unjust. I felt they created enough chances to score one.”

And one, as it turns out, was all Virginia Tech needed on Sunday.

After taking eight fruitless shots in the first period, the Hokies’ first shot of the second half found the back of the net in the 50th minute, as Virginia Tech’s Kelly Conheeney rerouted a cross toward goal and past UNC goalkeeper Anna Sieloff.

The score held up from that point on, sealing the Tar Heels’ second straight loss in Blacksburg — and their first loss in their last seven games.

“We’ve struggled at Virginia Tech in the past. They’ve beat us before in that venue,” Dorrance said. “And I think it’s a compliment to Virginia Tech and their coaching staff that we struggle out there. But they’re a fine team.”

With the game scoreless at the half, Dorrance decided to switch from the team’s recently instituted 4-2-3-1 formation and back to the team’s customary, more offense-friendly 3-4-3. At first, it appeared as though that tweak would break the team’s offensive stagnation.

“We managed to play a much better game under our old system than our new one,” Dorrance said.

“And that adjustment was certainly a good one to have, it created much more chances … but they scored on a great counterattack, and so that was the margin.”

The Tar Heels nearly doubled their shots total in the final 45-minute frame, tallying nine shots compared to five in the first period. After scoring the game-winning goal in Thursday’s 1-0 win at Boston College, forward Kealia Ohai was unable to crack the goal column with three unsuccessful shots in the game.

The sophomore had been coming on strong of late after a slow start to the season. And before Sunday, she had pushed across goals in four of her last five games.

But both Ohai and fellow forward Courtney Jones still aren’t quite satisfied with their performances after the two led the team with 14 goals and 11 goals respectively last season.

“I chatted with (Ohai) briefly after the game, and she is frustrated just because she’s not scoring like she did last year,” Dorrance said. “And Courtney feels the same.”

Part of that offensive difficulty could stem from the team’s switch to its new defensively tilted formation. And while the Tar Heels may not switch back to the old system, Dorrance said it’s something he’ll have in his back pocket as the team gears up for the ACC tournament beginning Sunday.

“We’ll sort of do it on a case-by-case basis,” Dorrance said. “What I like is that with very little training in our old system, we went back (Sunday), and we felt very comfortable.

“I basically did some blackboard chalk talk, reminding them of the nuances of the system. And I thought the girls responded well and created some nice chances out of it.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.