Opportunity.
Sports so often come down to opportunity — which team gets the most chances, and which team takes the biggest advantage of them.
It was those opportunities that defined the North Carolina field hockey team's spring-opening 2-0 win over Louisville on Friday. Time and again, the Cardinals would press against the Tar Heels' defense, seemingly on the verge of scoring. And time and again, the Tar Heels made crucial stops.
Last fall, the two-time defending national champion Tar Heels had been on a 47-game win streak — the second longest in NCAA field hockey history and the longest active streak in all NCAA sports — when they were upset by the Cardinals.
Despite the loss, UNC was able to bounce back and beat Louisville in the fall season's ACC Championship. Even months removed from that game, the Tar Heels showed that they still had the Cardinals' number.
"We just kept talking about what can we do to shut down certain players on their team,” senior goalie Amanda Hendry said. “It was good to just come out and actually apply what we’ve done in practice, and it was a great start to our season.”
The Cardinals almost set the pace from the get-go, earning two early penalty corners, both of which North Carolina defended. But the Tar Heels would then go on to earn two successive penalty corners of their own, with junior forward Erin Matson putting the ladder in the net.
As the bout continued, it became clear that penalty corners were the name of the game. The Cardinals would finish with 10 corners to UNC's five, but the Tar Heels' staunch defending was able to hold the Cardinals scoreless from the corner, ensuring that they never had an opportunity to take over the game.
“I’ve been working with these specific girls now for almost two years, and we’ve really grown as a corner unit together," Hendry said. "We struggled a little bit in the fall, but I think this game is the best game they’ve ever played as a corner unit, and I was really proud of them.”
