Any follower of North Carolina athletics is probably aware that the school's field hockey team is pretty good.
OK, really good.
The program has won back-to-back national championships, has the winningest coach in college field hockey history and recently took its fourth ACC title in a row. But despite these accolades, the Tar Heels still have to navigate through a challenging stretch of opponents in their postseason play.
On Sunday, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels did exactly that with a 2-0 win over Stanford.
Despite being unbeaten in the spring season, UNC looked vulnerable in its last four matchups and needed overtime periods to keep its winning streak intact. Against Virginia and Syracuse, the Tar Heels were outshot and out-cornered. They edged Wake Forest in those departments in the ACC automatic qualifier game but only capitalized to score on one corner.
Head coach Karen Shelton knew limiting Stanford’s penalty corners in the NCAA quarterfinal was the key strategy in avoiding more overtime play.
“I thought it was critical to the game and for our success; we needed to stop the penalty corner,” Shelton said. “(Stanford's) Corinne Zanolli is an outstanding player all the way around, but her drag flick on the penalty corner is lethal. We knew if we gave up a lot of corners, we would be facing an extreme threat.”
The Tar Heels stuck to their strategy in the first half, allowing Stanford no penalty corners, while racking up three for themselves. The last corner, inserted by sophomore midfielder Paityn Wirth, was shot clean to the back of the cage by redshirt junior back Cassie Sumfest for UNC’s first goal of the day.
North Carolina’s continued pressure left the Cardinal scrambling to build plays after passing their midline which resulted in a scoreless third quarter. In the fourth, UNC continued its offensive persistence with five total shots on goal, and with just three minutes left, junior forward Erin Matson corralled a rebound and sealed the win with a closing goal into the top corner of the net.
