By R.L. Bynum

Undefeated Carolina returned to its preseason United Soccer Coaches women’s soccer Top 25 position at No. 2 after winning a road game against one ranked SEC team and tying another in a big week for senior forward Avery Patterson.

UNC (4–0–2) was ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll but fell to No. 3 on Aug. 22 after a draw with No. 6 Penn State and dropped to No. 4 after a draw with Wisconsin. The Tar Heels slid up to No. 3 last week after a win over Arkansas (then No. 7, but now No. 11).

The rise in the poll comes after the Tar Heels won Thursday 2–1 at South Carolina (which is up one spot to No. 9) and tied 1–1 at Alabama (which jumped five spots to No. 7).

Patterson, who scored in both games last week and has goals in the last three matches, is the ACC Offensive Player of the Week.

“She always seems to rise to the occasion. She scores goals, she creates goals, she defends, she heads well and she is one of the kindest human beings on my roster,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. “Something I hope professional teams realize while they are sorting out who to draft and who to pay top dollar to sign: She can play any position on the field at a high level.”

Carolina opens ACC play at Dorrance Field at 3:30 Friday (ESPN3) when it takes on Virginia Tech (3–2–2).

Brigham Young (7–0–0) is No. 1 with all eight first-place votes for the second consecutive week.

Up one spot to No. 4 is Florida State (5–0). Other ACC teams in the poll are No. 8 Clemson (6–0–2, up one spot), No. 13 Notre Dame (4–1–2, down two spots), No. 15 Duke (4–2–0, down one spot) and No. 20 Virginia (5–0–2, down two spots).

Top 25

Rank	Team	Previous	Poll points	Record
1	BYU (8 1st-place votes)	1	200	7-0-0
2	North Carolina	3	184	5-0-3
3	Stanford	2	182	6-0-1
4	Florida State	5	174	5-0-0
5	UCLA	4	171	5-1-0
6	Penn State	6	167	6-0-1
7	Alabama	12	151	5-0-3
8	Clemson	9	140	6-0-2
9	South Carolina	10	117	6-1-1
10	Georgetown	13	107	4-0-3
11	Arkansas	7	106	3-2-1
12	Santa Clara	8	105	6-0-2
13	Notre Dame	11	103	4-1-2
14	Memphis	16	91	5-1-0
15	Duke	14	88	4-2-0
16	Texas	17	83	6-1-1
17	Xavier	21	81	6-1-0
18	Northwestern	20	59	6-0-2
19	Michigan	NR	58	4-1-2
20	Virginia	18	47	5-0-2
21	Gonzaga	23	44	6-1-1
22	Colorado	RV	34	7-1-0
23	Georgia	RV	31	3-1-2
24	Washington St.	15	22	6-1-0
25	Saint Louis	RV	22	5-2-1

Also receiving votes: Pittsburgh (10), Texas Tech (6), Iowa (5), Liberty (4), SMU (3), TCU (2), Long Beach State (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