By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina, seconds away from winning its 23rd national championship in December, is No. 2 in the preseason United Soccer Coaches’ women’s Top 25 released Tuesday and faces the toughest schedule in the country.

The Tar Heels, 20–5–1 last season, lost to UCLA 3–2 in double overtime in the NCAA final in Cary after leading with 16 seconds remaining. The Bruins, 22–2–1 last year, are No. 1 in the preseason poll and received all eight first-place votes.

Carolina returns two All-ACC first-team picks from a year ago for Coach Anson Dorrance’s 47th season as head coach in senior midfielder Sam Meza (top photo) and redshirt sophomore forward Ally Sentnor. Also back is senior forward Avery Patterson, a second-team pick, and sophomore defender Tesa Dellarose, a third-team selection. Dellarose and forward Maddie Dahlien made the All-Freshman team.

Five of the top six teams are from the ACC, with Notre Dame (17–3–3 last year) No. 3, Duke (15–5–3) No. 4, Virginia (16–4–3) No. 5, Florida State (17–3–3) No. 6. Also in the poll are No. 14 Pittsburgh (14–5–3) and No. 25 Clemson (8–5–5), with Virginia Tech receiving votes.

The Seminoles are the reigning ACC champions after beating the Tar Heels in the league championship game in Cary 2–1.

Three of UNC’s five losses last season came against Women’s College Cup teams: two defeats against UCLA and one against Florida State.

Carolina was ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll last season, but jumped to No. 1 after a pair of victories. UCLA took over the No. 1 spot on after beating the Tar Heels 2–1 on Sept. 4, and held it the rest of the season, while the Tar Heels were No. 2 most weeks and never lower than No. 5.

According to Chris Henderson of wosoindependent.com, the strength of UNC’s schedule is the toughest in the country, as its non-conference schedule. Carolina has eight teams in the preseason Top 25 on its schedule.

The only other ACC teams in the top 20 of toughest overall schedule are Duke at No. 5, Notre Dame at No. 14 and Clemson at No. 17. Duke is tied for the fifth-toughest non-conference schedule.

After home exhibition games Monday at 1 p.m. against College of Charleston and Saturday, Aug. 12, at 6 p.m. against East Carolina, UNC opens the season at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17 against No. 10 Penn State.

UNC faces No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Duke, No. 5 Virginia, No. 6 Florida State, No. 7 Alabama, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 12 South Carolina and No. 22.

AP Top 25

Rank	School	Prev	1st-place votes	Poll points	W-L-T
1	UCLA	1	8	200	22-2-1
2	North Carolina	2	0	192	20-5-1
3	Notre Dame	5	0	174	17-3-3
4	Duke	6	0	161	15-5-3
5	Virginia	7	0	155	16-4-3
6	Florida State	3	0	154	17-3-3
7	Alabama	4	0	145	23-3-1
8	Arkansas	8	0	137	13-4-5
9	TCU	10	0	130	14-5-5
10	Penn State	13	0	123	15-5-3
11	Stanford	16	0	118	17-2-3
12	South Carolina	9	0	111	15-4-5
13	Brigham Young	14	0	108	11-3-7
14	Pittsburgh	12	0	92	14-5-3
15	Texas	17	0	79	15-3-4
16	Georgetown	19	0	75	15-2-5
17	Michigan State	15	0	71	18-3-3
18	Northwestern	11	0	65	16-5-2
19	Santa Clara	22	0	52	11-7-3
20	Memphis	NR	0	47	11-5-6
21	Saint Louis	20	0	44	20-2-0
22	Southern Cal	23	0	40	12-3-3
23	Harvard	25	0	32	12-2-3
24	Central Florida	23	0	25	9-2-7
25	Clemson	NR	0	16	8-5-5

Records shown are final 2022 records.

Also receiving votes: California-Irvine (14), Xavier (9), Brown (7), Virginia Tech (7), Texas A&M (5), Southern Methodist (4), Rutgers (3), Nebraska (2), Georgia (2), Samford (1)

UNC schedule

Date	Month/day	Time/ score	Opponent	TV/ record
	August
14	Thursday	L, 2–0	at Tennessee	0–1
17	Sunday	W, 5–0	vs. Siena	1–1
21	Thursday	6:30	at Georgia	SECN+
24	Sunday	Noon	vs. Rice	ACCNE
28	Thursday	4 p.m.	vs. UNCG	ACCNE
31	Sunday	Noon	vs. Wisc.-Milwaukee
	September
4	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Alabama
7	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. James Madison
11	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Virginia Tech
17	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ACCN
25	Thursday	6 p.m.	At Notre Dame	ACCN
	October
2	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Boston College	ACCN
5	Sunday	4 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh
12	Sunday	1 p.m.	at Duke	ESPNU
17	Friday	6 p.m.	at SMU
23	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Miami
26	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Syracuse
30	Thursday	8 p.m.	vs. N.C. State	ACCN
	November		ACC tournament
2	Sunday		First round: Campus sites
6, 9	Thurs., Sun.	W, 2–1	Semifinals, final: Cary
			NCAA tournament
13	Thursday		First round Campus sites
	December	Women’s College Cup
5, 8	Fri., Mon.		CPKC Stadium Kansas City