No. 4 UNC women's soccer wins, 3-2, against No. 19 Virginia

The No. 4 UNC women’s soccer team (11-1, 4-0 ACC) beat No. 19 Virginia (8-3, 1-3 ACC), 3-2, on Friday night. 

The game was a tale of two halves. The first half was fast paced and high scoring, while the second was more of a struggle, with only the Tar Heels’ game winning goal going through. 

With the first touch of the game, North Carolina sent the ball high towards the goal, but Virginia brought it down and maintained possession from there. 

The Tar Heels were able to keep Virginia from getting good chances early, but several turnovers prevented them from taking possession over mid field. 

But Junior forward Kate Faasse got a good chance about ten minutes into the game when she got the ball up and off of the hands of Virginia Goaltender Victoria Safradin. The ball hit the bar and back out, but Faasse overran it and Safradin made the save. 

After that, both teams traded possession until Virginia was awarded a penalty kick off a UNC foul. Virginia’s Maggie Cagle took the penalty and launched the ball past North Carolina graduate goaltender Clare Gagne into the bottom left corner of the goal to go up 1-0. 

“Even when we went down a goal, you can feel it's really unfortunate,” interim head coach Damon Nahas said. “Whereas at different times in the past years you can feel like a little bit of a setback, in this team I just felt the calm.”

UNC used their first substitution on junior forward Maddie Dahlien, who hadn’t played since joining Team USA at the FIFA U20 World Cup in mid August. 

The Tar Heels were able to keep the ball over mid field after the virginia goal, but they struggled to penetrate Virginia’s defense until Dahlien took the ball towards the left baseline and passed it in to first-year midfielder Linda Ullmark, who slotted it to the left of a diving Safradin to even the score with her first goal of the season and of her career. 

“What a way to come back,” Dahlien said. “I missed these girls so much and it was just such a fun game to be a part of.”

But the Cavaliers put themselves back on top just a few minutes later with an unassisted goal from the left side to the middle of the net. 

Continuing the first half shootout, UNC tied the score again when Faasse met a pass from behind from Ullmark on the right side and launched it up and over Safradin into the top of the net. 

The scoring cooled off in the second half. North Carolina had a duo of close chances from about fifteen minutes into the half. Faasse shot the ball across the goal to send Safradin diving, but the ball missed slightly to the left. Then, Dahlien got a good look from in front of the goal, but it sailed just high. 

The Tar Heels and the Cavaliers traded chances until the 73rd minute, when Ullmark took the ball around a Virginia defender and slotted in into the upper right corner, unassisted,  for her second goal of the game and of her career. 

“The second goal, that’s the one I’ve been practicing a lot,” Ullmark said. “I just did a little stepover and curved it in with my right foot.”

Virginia fought to try and even the score, getting a good look with about five minutes left that resulted in a North Carolina block. But UNC was resilient. Clare Gagne made a save through traffic on a Virginia corner to close out the game. 

The Tar Heels will be back in action on Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. against Louisville at Dorrance Field. 

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