By R.L. Bynum

National observers may not have been that impressed with Carolina’s women’s soccer team before the season began, but that has quickly changed.

The Tar Heels were ranked No. 10 in the preseason United Soccer Coaches poll, but after defeating a pair of teams ranked in the top 11 of the preseason poll, they zoomed all the way to earning a unanimous No. 1 ranking in the latest poll Tuesday while some other ACC teams dropped. UNC got all eight first-place votes.

It’s Carolina’s first No. 1 ranking since Nov. 10, 2020. Since 2000, UNC is 135–11–2 as the top-ranked team.

Carolina won both of its exhibition games, including a 2–0 victory over then No. 3 BYU (which fell to No. 9) and won its first two regular-season games last week, including a 3–0 win over then No. 11 Tennessee (which fell to No. 22).

Carolina (2–0–0) has combined to win the two exhibition games and two regular-season games 12–0. In the Tar Heels’ 2–0 Sunday win over UNCW, they outshot the Seahawks 23–2.

Preseason No. 1 Florida State fell to No. 2 after a scoreless draw against then No. 12 South Carolina (now No. 4) and a 3–1 win over Georgia. Duke, which lost an exhibition to Georgia 2–1, fell from No. 2 to No. 5 after a 1–0 win at East Carolina and a 3–1 home win over UNC Greensboro.

Virginia, which lost an exhibition to Illinois 2–1 and tied Michigan 1–1 in an exhibition, fell from No. 4 to No. 8 after a 3–1 win over George Mason and a 6–0 victory over Loyola Marymount.

Clemson moved up from No. 25 to No. 18 after a scoreless tie with Texas A&M and a 6–1 victory over Campbell.

Duke was picked to win the ACC with Virginia second and UNC third.

Also on Tuesday, senior Tori Hansen (middle in top photo) was named ACC Women’s Soccer Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Hansen, who played 180 minutes in the first two games, headed in a goal against Tennessee.

UNC returns to action at 8 p.m. Thursday at Texas (Longhorn Network.)

Top 25

Rank	Team (first-place votes)	Points	Record	Preseason rank
1	North Carolina (8)	200	2-0-0	10
2	Florida State	175	1-0-1	1
3	Rutgers	161	2-0-0	6
4	South Carolina	158	1-0-1	12
5	Duke	157	2-0-0	2
6	UCLA	154	1-0-0	13
7	TCU	148	1-0-1	7
8	Virginia	135	2-0-0	4
9	BYU	133	1-0-0	3
10	Penn State	122	0-0-1	14
11	Georgetown	121	1-0-1	19
12	Ole Miss	111	2-0-0	18
13	Stanford	95	1-0-0	21
14	Pepperdine	73	2-0-0	17
15	SMU	67	1-0-1	23
16	Auburn	66	2-0-0	NR
17	Butler	61	2-0-0	NR
18	Clemson	57	1-0-1	25
19	Saint Louis	43	2-0-0	NR
20	Ohio State	42	2-0-0	NR
21	West Virginia	39	1-0-1	NR
22	Tennessee	35	0-1-1	11
23	UCF	35	1-0-1	NR
24	Wisconsin	33	1-0-1	NR
25	Colorado	29	2-0-0	NR

Also receiving votes: Notre Dame (28), Michigan (26), Texas A&M (19), Samford (17), Texas (16), N.C. State (16), Arkansas (10), Santa Clara (9), Washington (4), Xavier (2), UC-Irvine (2), Wake Forest (1).

Date	Month/day	Time/score	Event/opponent (current rank)	Location	TV/ record
	August
7	Monday	W, 8–1	College of Charleston	Home	Exhibition
12	Saturday	W, 2–0	East Carolina	Home	Exhibition
17	Thursday	T, 0–0	No. 5 Penn State	University Park, Pa.	0–0–1
20	Sunday	W, 3–1	Cal	Home	1–0–1
24	Thursday	T, 0–0	No. 12 Wisconsin	Home	1–0–2
27	Sunday	W, 4–0	No. 22 USC	Home	2–0–2
31	Thursday	W, 5–0	Gardner-Webb	Home	3–0–2
	September
3	Sunday	W, 3–1	No. 10 Arkansas	Home	4–0–2
7	Thursday	W, 2–1	No. 16 South Carolina	Columbia, S.C.	5–0–2
10	Sunday	T, 1–1	No. 24 Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Ala.	5–0–3
15	Friday	W, 1–0	Virginia Tech	Home	6–0–3, 1–0 ACC
21	Thursday	W, 1–0	Virginia	Charlottesville, Va.	7–0–3, 2–0 ACC
24	Sunday	T, 3–3	No. 1 Florida State	Home	7–0–4, 2–0–1 ACC
30	Saturday	W, 4–0	N.C. State	Raleigh	8–0–4, 3–0–1 ACC
	October
5	Thursday	W, 1–0	Miami	Home	9–0–4, 4–0–1 ACC
8	Sunday	T, 1–1	No. 25 Duke	Durham	9–0–5, 4–0–2 ACC
13	Friday	T, 1–1	No. 25 Wake Forest	Winston-Salem	9–0–6, 4–0–3 ACC
19	Thursday	T, 1–1	No. 9 Notre Dame	Home	9–0–7, 4–0–4 ACC
22	Sunday	W, 6–1	Syracuse	Home	10–0–7, 5–0–4 ACC
26	Thursday	T, 1–1	Boston College	Newton, Mass.	10–0–8, 5–0–5 ACC
			ACC tournament
29	Sunday	L, 2–1 (2 OTs)	No. 11 Pittsburgh	Chapel Hill	10–1–8
	November		NCAA tournament Link to bracket
10	Friday	W, 3–1	First round: Towson	Chapel Hill	11–1–8
17	Friday	W, 1–0	Second round: No. 24 Alabama	Lubbock, Texas	12–1–8
19	Sunday	W, 1–0	Third round: No. 4 Texas Tech	Lubbock, Texas	13–1–8
24	Friday	L, 4–3	Quarterfinals: No. 6 Brigham Young	Provo, Utah	13–2–8