'The one moment she needed': Linda Ullmark makes first career brace to best Virginia
UNC first-year midfielder Linda Ullmark (7) chases the ball during the women's soccer game against Virginia on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 at Dorrance Field. UNC won 3-2.
Damon Nahas was at a showcase in Florida. He had one more scholarship opportunity for his incoming recruiting class. It was late in the day. It had been a long day. The UNC interim head coach was tired and ready to go home. There was one more game, an ECNL selection game. Nahas wasn’t going to stay. But for some reason, maybe otherworldly, he did.
“All of a sudden I’m watching this kid.”
Linda Ullmark.
She spent the first 10 years of her life in Japan — her dad was in the Marines. She moved to San Diego and then to Upstate New York. And now, here she was on a soccer field in Florida with Nahas watching.
“Absolutely brilliant,” he said. “And I’m thinking she’s got to be committed already.”
Ullmark wasn’t. She had been injured for most of her recruiting process.
“That was kind of my last game,” Ullmark said. “I was like, ‘Whoever sees me, sees me, and then I’ll make my decision from here.’ UNC wasn’t even on my radar. But then when he talked to me, I was overjoyed.”
Ullmark committed two weeks later.
“It was like destiny on that day,” Nahas said.
And Friday night was a full-circle moment during No. 4 North Carolina's 3-2 victory against No. 19 Virginia at Dorrance Field. The first-year midfielder not only recorded her first career goal, but she also notched her first career brace and first career match-winner. Her breakout performance led North Carolina to an important, hard-fought win over a tough conference opponent.
UNC first-year midfielder Linda Ullmark (7) runs after the ball during the women's soccer game against Virginia on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 at Dorrance Field. UNC won 3-2.
For Ullmark, practice doesn’t end when practice ends. She stays after to take extra shots.
The first-year has started every match this season. She hasn’t played less than 66 minutes in a match and has played the full 90 minutes five times. Through the first 11 games of the season, Ullmark recorded 36 shots and three assists.
But the goals weren’t coming.
Nahas said Ullmark is soft spoken. He did most of the talking during that first interaction in Florida. There was a lot of silent staring.
But Nahas knew he found a special player, a special person and, now, her teammates believe it, too. They kept encouraging her, despite the long wait for her first career goal.
“You could tell she was pressing through the year,” Nahas said. “She was trying, trying. It just wasn't coming. You knew it was that one moment she needed.”
UNC trailed Virginia, 1-0, just before the half-hour mark. Junior forwards Kate Faasse and Maddie Dahlien combined on the left wing. Dahlien played a low ball across the face of the goal. The ball was a little behind her, but Ullmark was there. She took the ball with her left foot and slid it past the Cavaliers' goalkeeper into the bottom corner.
Finally.
“I told her it was coming,” Dahlien said.
UNC trailed Virginia, 2-1, in the 38th minute. Ullmark played an inch-perfect through ball to Faasse. Faasse did the rest. Ullmark’s fourth assist of the year.
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And then in the 74th minute with the match still tied at two, Ullmark burst down the left flank. She squared up her defender, cut inside on her right foot and ripped a perfect curling shot into the far corner. The entire Virginia team stood in a circle at the edge of its penalty area, stunned.
“That’s the one I’ve been practicing a lot,” Ullmark said.
Destiny fulfilled.
After the match, Ullmark and Nahas shared a hug.
Nahas is glad he decided to stay for that last game.
