The No. 5 North Carolina field hockey team (12-3, 3-2 ACC) traveled to Richmond, Va., on Sunday and defeated Virginia Commonwealth University (10-5, 3-2 Atlantic 10) 4-1.
Three of the four Tar Heel goals came off of penalty corners. In the first half, sophomore Marissa Creatore got one in off the assist from junior Malin Evert. Two minutes later, Evert got one of her own with 15 minutes left to play in the first half.
Junior Eva van’t Hoog converted the third goal of the game off a penalty corner, making the score 3-0 in UNC's favor. Later in the second half, redshirt first-year Kathryn Holland placed one in the back of the net off an assist from Creatore. But in the 54th minute, VCU was able to avoid the shutout by scoring a goal of its own.
The game ended in a 4-1 UNC victory.
Both Creatore and Evert had one goal and one assist in the game. Head coach Karen Shelton had high praise for both of them — especially Creatore.
“She’s continuing to improve,” Shelton said. “We like her a lot. She brings a level of speed that not many teams can match.”
Creatore spoke on her fast-paced play.
“As a team, we try to work really hard and outwork the other team and just play our game,” Creatore said. “I try to up the tempo and just bring energy to the game.”
Creatore and her teammates will have time to refuel this week before taking on No. 2 Duke on Friday. The Blue Devils have won nine of their last 10 games, with eight of those wins coming against ranked opponents.
