Following a 3-1 victory over Georgia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, UNC women's soccer head coach Anson Dorrance said his program needed "to figure out a way to win national championships again."
Playing in a new shape on Friday, the longtime head coach — who's won 20 NCAA championships with UNC, the last of which came in 2012 — thinks he may have found the answer.
UNC has relied on a 4-3-3 formation all season, a standard structure that balances the defensive fortitude of a four-person back line and the explosive potential of a three-person attacking group. It's been effective for the most part, but Dorrance said he felt he wanted to create more scoring chances for his team, especially considering UNC's stagnant offense in the ACC Tournament.
Against the Bulldogs, the Heels unveiled a 3-5-2, a more modern formation defined by its three-person back line and two roving wingbacks that have the flexibility to move up the field and push the attack or drop back to defend.
"It gives us an opportunity to have a lot of people in the attacking box," Dorrance said. "If you think about it, the two front runners can pin a (four-person back line) back, so now we have numbers up in midfield. If their four backs are dealing with my two forwards, we have numerical superiority."
The numbers game paid off for the Tar Heels, who were more easily able to build up possession and get the ball to their most dangerous weapons. Early in the second half, UNC went up 3-0, the largest deficit Georgia had faced all season.
Two of those goals came from redshirt first-year Ally Sentnor, who secured her second brace in as many games. Sentnor put UNC on the board in the 23rd minute with an impressive unassisted goal. At the top of the penalty arc, the first-team All-ACC forward spun past her defender, side-stepped another and booted the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal. Thirty-four minutes later, Sentnor netted the dagger off a through ball from Isabel Cox.
"I'm really proud of us because we haven't really trained a lot in (the 3-5-2), and everyone really came out with great attitudes and we really stuck to the formation," Sentnor said. "And I think it really worked. We used every player and people made unselfish runs for each other to help us score."
Junior Talia DellaPeruta, who started in place of injured star midfielder Sam Meza, also thrived from the attacking midfielder position. Assisted by junior Avery Patterson, who was playing at wingback, the U.S. U20 national team talent from Cumming, Ga., scored on a counter in the opening minutes of the second half to put UNC up, 2-0.
