In what has become a familiar story for North Carolina field hockey, its competition on Sunday proved to be no match for the No. 1 team in the country. But in that stretch of dominance, new opportunities have emerged for players who normally don’t play many minutes.
The equal-opportunity offense run by North Carolina (11-0, 4-0 ACC) saw the team set several season highs, including shots on goal (20) and goals scored (9), as well as tying it’s season high in total shots (29).
In the 70 minutes it took to complete the 9-0 routing of Ball State (1-9, 1-1 MAC), the Tar Heels took the chance to give extended run to their bench. Two players, midfielder Ali Rushton and forward Riley Fulmer, scored their first career goals.
“It’s a wonderful reward for the kids that don’t get the minutes but work so hard in practice every day,” head coach Karen Shelton said. “It’s much like Carolina basketball: when the [second] team gets in, we all want them to do well, so I’m just thrilled that everybody had a chance to play and that they played amazing.”
Sunday was the first time in the history of the program where UNC had played four different goalkeepers across the span of an entire game. The game was the first time third-string goalkeeper Mary Kathryn Harrah appeared this season, and redshirt first-year Megan Ragusa logged her first career minutes as well.
It has been an unusual journey for Ragusa, a walk-on goalkeeper who took a gap year immediately after high school to volunteer with the Surbiton Hockey Club in England. It has been an even more unusual situation for North Carolina, which found itself with an abundance of goalkeepers.
“I think two years ago I was like ‘I don’t want four goalkeepers, it's too many,’" Shelton said. “But when we had four goalkeepers, it really helped us in practice. So we can have two quality games each with a goalkeeper instead of having one with two goalies and one with, you know, we play a rugby game where you have to cross the line.”
Ragusa only faced one shot after she subbed in at the 65:10 minute mark for the Tar Heels, but the opportunity was a payoff after two years of hard work.
