UVa. loss moves UNC women's soccer to 7-3 in ACC

While their classmates enjoyed fall break, the members of the No. 4 North Carolina women’s soccer team were busy at Fetzer Field.

UNC took the field Thursday against Syracuse and Sunday against No. 1 Virginia. The Tar Heels were able to pick up a 1-0 win against Syracuse, but fell 2-0 to Virginia on Sunday.

In the first ever meeting between UNC (13-3, 7-3 ACC) and Syracuse’s (7-9-1, 3-7-1 ACC) women’s soccer teams, Summer Green put the Tar Heels on the board early, scoring the game’s solo goal.

UNC was awarded a free kick just outside the box in the game’s ninth minute when Kealia Ohai tapped the ball forward for Green, who ran on it and fired a shot that found the top right corner of the net for her fifth goal of the season .

“Our main focus was to try and get a goal in the first 20-25 minutes,” Green said after the win. “We were happy to get that goal.”

UNC faced a much tougher task against the top-ranked Cavaliers Sunday. Virginia (16-0, 10-0 ACC) is the only undefeated and untied team in the country and leads the nation in goals per game, total goals, and assists per game.

The Tar Heels again played well defensively, holding the Cavaliers to six shots, but lost the game 2-0. It was only the second loss by more than one goal UNC had suffered in 690 games, a streak that dated back to the 1985 season.

“Virginia is excellent, and they demonstrated it,” said UNC coach Anson Dorrance after his team lost without its top scorer Crystal Dunn. Dunn was in Texas competing with the national team.

“I consider missing Crystal a wash because Morgan Brian wasn’t here for Virginia. I’m not gonna make any excuses for, ‘Well, Crystal wasn’t here,’ because they were missing their elite player as well.”

Virginia scored its first goal in the game’s 13th minute when Brittany Ratcliffe took a shot that UNC goalkeeper Bryane Heaberlin managed to get a hand on, but the ball slipped just inside the left post and found the back of the net.

“Giving up an early goal really hurt us,” said senior midfielder Kelly McFarlane. “They were able to sit back and play defense more.”

UNC applied more pressure in the second half, but was unable to score, while Virginia scored again in the 84th minute.

“It was just a bunch of offensive mistakes,” sophomore defender Hanna Gardner said. “Giving the ball away in such a dangerous position for them to counter attack … it was a really good shot, hard for any of us to really prevent.”

McFarlane said she hopes UNC isn’t permanently finished with the Cavaliers.

“Now we’ve seen the No. 1 ranked team, and now we just have to keep working, keep progressing to get better,” she said.

“Hopefully, we’ll see them down the road.”

sports@dailytarheel.com