Maddie Dahlien pushes UNC women's soccer past Clemson

Maddie Dahlien had a decision to make. 

Dahlien grew up playing soccer in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. She started to run track in high school.

As a junior at Edina High School, Dahlien won state championships in the 100m, 200m and 400m in 2021. Her senior year in 2022, she won the 200m and the long jump. On the soccer field, Dahlien scored 37 goals and recorded 14 assists to lead Edina to a 20-2 record and the state semifinals. She was named both Ms. Track and Ms. Soccer in the state of Minnesota and highly recruited in both sports. 

“I really love the game of soccer,” Dahlien said. “I love training. I love the team-sport atmosphere. I love having best friends on the team. I love being around the team in general. And I think an individual sport wasn’t really my route.”

Dahlien chose soccer and UNC. The junior forward won two penalty kicks and scored her first goal of the season in North Carolina’s 6-0 drubbing of Clemson Thursday night at Dorrance Field. Interim head coach Damon Nahas called her a “game-changing type of player.” 

Thursday was only Dahlien’s seventh match this season. From Aug. 18 to Sep. 27, Dahlien played for the U.S. U-20 Women’s Youth National Team, earning bronze at the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

“It was an amazing experience,” Dahlien said. “It’s always an honor to represent your country. It was honestly surreal.” 

Dahlien’s first cap for the U.S. WYNT came in June of 2023 against Jamaica in the Concacaf U-20 Championship. She scored a hat-trick.

Just over a year later in the World Cup, Dahlien played in all seven matches. She scored twice in the group stage and created the match-winning goals in Team USA’s quarterfinal and bronze-medal wins.

Dahlien has six international goals in 15 caps.

“She has evolved as a player,” Nahas said. “So now [teams] don’t know whether she is going to go inside, whether she is going to pass, whether she is going to dribble down the line. She’s multi-dimensional.”

Nahas said Dahlien wasn’t always a versatile attacker. She has added layers to her game — high-level decision making and technical ability, combined with her prolific pace. The key for Dahlien has been finding balance and simplicity in her game.

The 2022 ACC All-Freshman Team selection returned from international duty and created an equalizing goal seven minutes after coming onto the field against Virginia.

She picked up the ball close to the halfway line, glided around her Cavalier defender and played a ball into the channel for junior forward Kate Faasse. Dahlien made an overlapping run, got the ball back and put it on a platter for first-year forward Linda Ullmark to slot home.

But Nahas said her true breakout performance was in UNC’s 1-0 victory over Cal in October. She played all 90 minutes and led the team with five shots. Still, no goal of her own.

On Thursday night, the Tigers sent three defenders to shadow her on the left wing. In the 15th minute, Dahlien darted into the box, weaving through space and around defenders, and drew a penalty. Then in the 58th minute, she was fouled in the box again. This time, senior midfielder and designated penalty taker Bella Sember fed her the ball. She dispatched the spot kick into the bottom-left corner.

“I was really thankful for Bella for giving that to me,” Dahlien said. “Felt really good to put one in.”

And while she could probably be a college track star, Dahlien's decision proved to be a good one. 

“What’s in front of her is extraordinary because of the work she has put in,” Nahas said. “She’s going to make it difficult for years and years to come for defenders to deal with her.”

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