Charly Bruder plays pivotal role in No. 1-seeded UNC field hockey's ACC championship run

WINSTON-SALEM — Sophomore forward Charly Bruder is synonymous with UNC field hockey’s penalty corner. 

With two minutes left in the second quarter, fifth-year back Ciana Riccardo passed the ball to fifth-year midfielder Katie Dixon.

Dixon steadied the ball, leaving it for Bruder.

The forward pushed the ball forward to create space. Then, she launched the ball off the goalkeeper and into the back of the cage. 

During Friday’s 4-1 win over Boston College to clinch the team’s eighth consecutive ACC championship at Wake Forest's Kentner Stadium, the Tar Heels took a season-high 16 corners. And Bruder — who won ACC tournament MVP with a tournament-leading five goals, tied for second-most all-time in the ACC tournament — left her mark on most of them. 

"Char has been important the entire season," Ciana Riccardo said. "But right now, when we need her big, she's really stepping up. That's all we can ask of her."

Opposing teams have come to expect Bruder’s involvement on corners so often that UNC began to practice using her as a decoy for postseason play. 

But for Bruder, her penalty corner's weren't always so lethal. 

When she started on the unit last year, she initially lacked the decision-making and vision that define her game now. 

“Trying to get it on the cage last year, it literally skyrocketed to the moon almost fifty percent of the time,” Bruder said. 

However, practice made perfect. She always possessed a rocket of a shot, as head coach Erin Matson put it, but becoming the NCAA leader in goals per game was a matter of honing in on the ability to read the defense and make strategic decisions about when and where to shoot the ball. 

This decision making was on full display on Bruder’s penalty corner goal, which broke the first half stalemate to give UNC a 1-0 lead. 

“In the past, she might have been the one standing over the ball and executing the penalty corners, but someone else was creating them,” Matson said. “Where now she’s having a hand in creating that with the field play, and then being able to step up and put the ball away.”

This season, the forward has nearly doubled her shots on goal from 34 to 67 through 18 games.

Romea Riccardo, who was on the team's backline last year and joined the coaching staff this fall, highlighted the importance of big games in Bruder’s development. She specifically pointed to her corner goal in the national championship last year against Northwestern. 

The goal against Northwestern was nearly identical to Friday’s — steady the ball, create some space and send a searing shot to the back of the goal. 

It’s these moments that have made Bruder into someone who her teammates can trust in big moments to deliver. And it’s the knowledge of that confidence, in turn, which grounds Bruder when she positions herself at the top of the offensive circle, time and time again. 

“You just have to take a deep breath, believe in yourself,” Bruder said. It’s really helpful when your teammates believe in you at the top of the circle, and you have the thought in your mind, ‘I know I’m going to score this.’” 

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