After a third-round exit from the NCAA Tournament last year and a season that produced the team’s worst record (13-5-2) in program history, preseason No. 8 UNC women’s soccer team is ready to put the past behind them.
But last year’s stumbling blocks — injuries and players missing time for world championship tournaments — remain, and they contributed to the Tar Heels’ 1-0 loss at Portland in their season opener.
It was only the fourth time the Tar Heels lost a season opener in the program’s 34-year history.
The Tar Heels have 10 of 11 starters returning to the team, but the absence of juniors Kealia Ohai and Crystal Dunn for the U-20 world championship, which lasts until the ACC schedule begins, deprives the team of some of its offensive firepower.
“I think we dominated more or less over the course of the (Portland) game,” senior captain Amber Brooks said. “With the players we have missing, the challenge is scoring goals with the kind of unit that we have left.”
Ohai and Dunn, ranked first and fourth among the team’s returning goal scorers, will miss UNC’s daunting non-conference schedule, which features two opponents ranked in the top 25.
“We’re going to try and weave and bob through this first part of our schedule and see if we can continue to improve and see if we can steal a game or two,” coach Anson Dorrance said.
The Pilots scored in the fifth minute on a free kick from Amanda Frisbie, which was redirected by Ellen Parker, and the Tar Heels never equalized. UNC fired 20 shots in the comeback attempt, but only five were on frame.
“We took too many long-range shots,” Dorrance said. “We had opportunities to take it a little bit further, and I don’t know if it was a lack of experience or maybe just the first-game jitters or just getting the shot off as quickly as we can.”
