By R.L. Bynum

Undefeated Carolina moved up in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 women’s rankings, and the Tar Heels’ dominant defense continues a stranglehold on the ACC Defensive Player of the Week honor.

The Tar Heels (4–0–2) went up one spot to No. 3 in the poll.

Reigning national champion UCLA lost 3–1 at Brigham Young (6–0), which jumped six spots to No. 1 on the strength of that victory.

The Bruins (3–1), who beat UNC during the regular season and in the NCAA championship game last season, fell from No. 1 to No. 4. Florida State (3–0) fell three spots to No. 5 after beating South Florida 5–1 in its only game. Stanford moved up one spot to No. 2 after rolling to a 4–0 home victory over Duke, which fell four spots to No. 14.

Other ranked ACC teams are No. 9 Clemson (up two spots), No. 11 Notre Dame (up four spots), No. 18 Virginia (down six spots) and No. 22 Pittsburgh (down one spot).

The ACC Defensive Player of the Week is a Tar Heel for the third time in as many weeks.

Freshman center back Savy King is the honoree for the second time this season (also on Aug. 22) after Sam Meza (who missed both games last week) earned the honor a week earlier.

UNC coach Anson Dorrance said that King, a West Hills, Calif., native, “continues to be the final bastion of the UNC defense. She was all over the back solving problems for us, and she is an absolute magnificent defender.”

UNC’s defense was strong again last week in a 5–0 win over Gardner-Webb, when the Bulldogs got off only one shot, and in a 3–1 victory against Arkansas, which moved up one spot to No. 7.

Carolina’s six opponents have combined to score only two goals and Tar Heels goalies have recorded four shutouts.

Top 25

Rank	Team	Previous rank	1st-place votes	Poll points
1	Brigham Young	7	8	200
2	Stanford	3	0	187
3	North Carolina	4	0	182
4	UCLA	1	0	175
5	Florida State	2	0	170
6	Penn State	6	0	161
7	Arkansas	8	0	141
8	Santa Clara	8	0	137
9	Clemson	11	0	135
10	South Carolina	13	0	121
11	Notre Dame	15	0	108
12	Alabama	5	0	102
13	Georgetown	14	0	100
14	Duke	10	0	98
15	Washington State	17	0	83
16	Memphis	16	0	79
17	Texas	18	0	66
18	Virginia	12	0	62
19	USC	19	0	60
20	Northwestern	20	0	48
21	Xavier	25	0	44
22	Pittsburgh	21	0	32
23	Gonzaga	24	0	30
24	Nebraska	NR	0	23
25	TCU	RV	0	15

Also receiving votes: Saint Louis (13), Georgia (12), Colorado (6), Long Beach State (4), Wake Forest (3), Iowa (1), Kansas (1), Vanderbilt (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