When Gloria Averbuch saw her 12-year-old daughter leave their New Jersey home for the first time, it was to the North Carolina's women's soccer camp. "Like every little girl in the country who played soccer, she was fascinated by North Carolina," Averbuch said. "(But) no one could have imagined how great (her experience) is now."
The North Carolina women's soccer team will honor its four graduating seniors publicly in a tribute before the team's final regular-season home game versus Wake Forest. Heather O'Reilly, Elizabeth Guess, Jennifer Perkins and Elizabeth Lancaster all will be making their last regular-season appearance at Fetzer Field. UNC likely will have a home game in the NCAA Tournament, but today the No. 2 Tar Heels (17-1, 9-0 in the ACC) will be focusing on the challenge posed by the No. 16 Demon Deacons (13-4, 5-3). "Playing a top ACC team is a challenge," Coach Anson Dorrance said.
Freshman centerfielder Breanna Brown's double with the bases loaded saved the No. 22 North Carolina softball team from defeat Wednesday against East Carolina University. The 3-1 win didn't save her from laundry duty, however. "I didn't run through first base on a hit in our last game against (Boston College)," she said, "so I had laundry duty as punishment." The Tar Heels (40-11) were down a run to ECU (29-20) heading into the bottom of the fifth at Eugene D. Anderson Stadium.
They are either first or second on the team in hits, runs, RBIs, home runs and at bats. And they have started all 40 games for the North Carolina softball team this year. The sophomore duo of second baseman Cassie Palmer and first baseman Jennifer Jacobs have provided much of the offensive spark to propel UNC to a No. 23 national ranking and 30-10 (4-2 in the ACC) record heading into a three-game series against Virginia this weekend in Charlottesville, Va.
With no outs and Campbell a single away from tying the score in the top of the seventh inning, senior pitcher Crystal Cox did what she's been doing her whole career at North Carolina - struck out the side. "I'm always going for strikeouts," she said. "I didn't want to let them put the ball in play." Cox struck out 11 to lead No. 24 UNC to a 2-0 victory against Campbell in the first of two North Carolina victories at the Eugene G. Anderson Stadium on Wednesday.
