The No. 1 North Carolina field hockey team (9-2, 3-0 ACC) will exit the win column after a 2-1 double overtime loss against No. 10 Liberty (12-1, 4-0 Big East).
The Tar Heels failed to capitalize on 12 penalty corner opportunities, including five across the two overtime periods.
“Either the insert was a little off, the rolling was a little too far, or the hit was off target,” head coach Erin Matson said. “You know, it's just executing your own job in terms of corners. And we struggled to do that today and Liberty's defense was top notch.”
Within the first five minutes of the match, the ball was seen in and out of the teams’ respective territories. After eventually gathering two penalty corners each, UNC prevailed with a tight chipped goal from senior midfielder Kiersten Thomassey. Toward the end of the first quarter, the Tar Heels gained primary possession of the ball, holding Liberty to zero shots.
Though the start of the first and second quarter were similar regarding ball possession, North Carolina was able to dominate Liberty with concentrated on-field performances from defensive and midfield players, including junior back Kelly Smith and first-year midfielder Sanne Hak. However, in the last minute before halftime, Liberty back Jodie Conolly tied the match with a one shot stroke into the left corner of the cage.
“As a group, we came together and were like, ‘we’re still in this, we got this’,” senior midfielder captain Katie Dixon said. “I think we focused on playing our game – we’ve worked on moving the ball a lot, working together, and playing the simple pass and I think we did that excellently in the second half.”
