By R.L. Bynum

A pair of top-10 SEC teams haven’t been able to overcome the No. 3 North Carolina women’s soccer team. Five days after the Tar Heels were the better Carolina on the football field, they proved the same on the soccer pitch.

Four days after a two-goal win over No. 7 Arkansas in Chapel Hill, the undefeated Tar Heels won 2–1 in Columbia, S.C., on Thursday night to give No. 10 South Carolina its first loss.

UNC goaltender Emmie Allen ran out to snuff a late Gamecocks change in the last minute and they were aggressive in the final minutes and taking advantage of Tar Heel mistakes.

“I thought the second half was theirs,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said in a TV interview after the game. “I thought we had the first half. We were in full panic no there at the end.”

Just like in the Sunday victory, UNC (5–0–2) got plenty of chances as the Tar Heels’ box 3–2–2–3 formation consistently cut through the Gamecocks’ four defenders for chances, particularly in the first half. With midfielder Sam Meza back in the UNC lineup after missing two games, she made a difference as the Tar Heels took control early.

“What I have to do is figure out a way to play a second half with a little bit more composure,” Dorrance said. “In the last minute and a half, we kept giving the ball back to the other team, and that’s just not acceptable. So we’ve got to get to another level if we want to be the team I think we can be. But tip my hat to South Carolina. They made it hard. They came out firing and fighting in the second half, and we’ve got to figure out a way to weather that.”

It was another physical battle as South Carolina had nine fouls and two yellow cards, with UNC committing six fouls. UNC won shots 19–8 and shots on goal 5–2 but South Carolina got off the most shots by a Tar Heels opponent this season (five was the previous high by Penn State and Arkansas.)

In the fifth minute, Avery Patterson took a cross from Maddie Dahlien and fired in a shot from six yards out to give UNC the quick lead.

“We started out well and an early goal always relaxes you a little bit,” Dorrance said during a halftime TV interview. “So that was really cool for us. And our reserve unit, they also played very well and got another one.”

After a couple of quick passes, freshman Melina Rebimbas flicked a short forward pass through the legs of South Carolina forward Gracie Falla to sophomore midfielder Tori Dellaperuta, who fired it in from 8 yards out to make it 2–0 with a goal in the 35th minute.

Catherine Barry broke through for South Carolina (5–1–1) with a diving, left-footed shot in the 49th minute to cut its deficit to 2–1.

NOTES — The Tar Heels play the second of three consecutive matches against SEC opponents at 7 p.m. Sunday, visiting No. 12 Alabama. The Crimson Tide, which lost to eventual national champion UCLA in a national semifinal last season, is 5–0–2 after Thursday’s 2–0 win at Southern Miss. … The match started an hour late because of rain and lightning in the area. … It was the first UNC-South Carolina meeting since the Gamecocks won 1–0 in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament … The goal in the first five minutes was only UNC’s second goal this season in the first 13 minutes, the other coming against California in the third minute. … UNC ties the all-time series 3–3 with the victory after losing three of the previous four meetings, all by 1–0 scores. The only previous meeting that wasn’t 1–0 was the first in 2000, which UNC won 9–1.

No. 3 UNC 2, No. 10 South Carolina 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