Penalty corner goals lift No. 1-seeded UNC field hockey to ACC championship game

WINSTON-SALEM — Twenty percent of UNC field hockey’s practices are devoted to penalty corners. 

Sometimes, it’s 20 minutes of reps with no defense. Inserting to the top of the circle, stopping the ball and shooting. Over and over again. 

Other days it’s the entire starting corner unit running a drawn-up play versus the backline for 30 minutes. Maybe even a combination of both. 

It’s a regimen that made the Tar Heels lethal on corners. In No. 1-seeded North Carolina’s 3-1 victory on Wednesday over No. 5-seeded Syracuse in the ACC tournament semifinals, all three of UNC’s goals came off penalty corner opportunities.  

“We’re trying to create and generate a lot of attack,” head coach Erin Matson said. “But if we’re not able to put the balls away, put the goals away during the field play, at least our penalty corners are being executed.” 

The Tar Heels lead the nation in goals per game, finding the back of the cage just over four times each match. A major part of this offensive production stems from corners. North Carolina leads the ACC and ranks eighth in the country for corners per game, averaging nine.

It starts with drawing a foul. Usually, it’s junior forward Ryleigh Heck, who Charly Bruder said is particularly talented at finding a foot to hit the ball off of and earn the whistle for a corner opportunity. 

On Wednesday at Wake Forest’s Kentner Stadium, it took UNC five corners to finally score. 

Fifth-year back Ciana Riccardo swept the ball from the black and gold baseline to Bruder at the top of the circle. The sophomore forward tapped it inside the curved line, pulled back her stick and released. 

The ball rocketed down the middle, tapped off a Syracuse defender’s stick and flew into the cage above the goalkeeper’s head. 1-0. 

“[Bruder’s] our go-to because she hits the ball pretty hard and pretty accurate,” assistant coach Manuel Garcia Nieto said. “She makes our job as coaches easier because we have that great resource. She’s effective.” 

The Bruder one-hit is North Carolina’s typical corner play. Her power and accuracy on corners have made her not just UNC’s leading scorer, but the nation’s. Matson said she senses fear from the defense whenever Bruder steps up to shoot. 

But Nieto, who coaches UNC’s penalty corner unit, noticed after the first goal that the usual game plan wasn’t working as effectively. Three one-hit shots were blocked after the first goal. A Syracuse defender was beating North Carolina to the ball, deflecting it before a shot could be fired. The Tar Heels needed more space on the field. 

Eight minutes after the first goal, Riccardo fed the ball to the top of the circle. Junior midfielder Sietske Brüning faked a shot, while sophomore midfielder Sanne Hak sent it behind Brüning to senior midfielder Jasmina Smolenaars on the left side. Smolenaars crossed it back to a wide-open Bruder. 

She let it fly. The ball smacked against the backboards of the cage.  

Bruder breathed a sigh of relief.

“Erin gave me advice to take time on it,” she said. “Today, I just focused on taking time on it, and I finally found the back of the cage.”

And even when the corner plays didn't go exactly to plan, North Carolina still found a way. 

In the 34th minute, Bruder’s wind-up shot was tipped away from the goal by two defenders — right to graduate midfielder Pleun Lammers at the far left post. 

She steadied the wild ball, then swung. Goal. 

“It’s just a mentality change of the team since the beginning of the year, where they’re taking pride in the corners they’re creating,” Matson said. “They know we’re putting so much emphasis and effort on them during practice so that when they step up on that circle, they feel confident and they feel like this is the time to execute.”

@carolinewills03

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