By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina is back atop the women’s college soccer world.

For the first time in over a year, the Tar Heels are No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll released Tuesday afternoon. In addition, UNC is No. 1 in the first RPI list of the season and has played two teams in the top five.

Redshirt senior left back Maycee Bell is the ACC Defensive Player of the Week, earning the honor for the fourth time in her career. Tar Heels have won the award four of five weeks, previously won by Savy King (Aug. 22 and Sept. 5) and Sam Meza (Aug. 29).

In the poll, UNC (6–0–3, 1–0 ACC) supplanted Brigham Young (7–1–1), which lost Saturday 1–0 on the road to unranked Utah State. The Cougars, No. 12 in the RPI, fell to No. 6. The Tar Heels got even of eight first-place votes, with the other going to Florida State, which moved up one spot to No. 3.

It’s the Tar Heels’ first time at No. 1 since they were the top-ranked team for the second (Aug. 23) and third (Aug. 30) polls last season before falling to No. 2 after losing to eventual national champion UCLA. UNC was No. 1 for the first eight weeks of the 2020–21 season.

Carolina’s schedule, rated the toughest in the country, offers more challenges this week as the Tar Heels visit No. 22 Virginia (5–0–3, 0–0–1; down two spots) at 7 p.m. Thursday (ESPN3) and host No. 3 Florida State (6–0, 1–0) at noon Sunday (ESPNU).

The Bruins, who were No. 1 this season before losing to BYU 3–1 on Aug. 31, stayed at No. 5, with Stanford moving up one spot to No. 2.

Other ACC teams in the poll are No. 8 Clemson (unchanged), No. 10 Notre Dame (up three spots) and No. 16 Duke (down 1 spot).

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Top 25

Rank	School	Previous	1st-place votes	Poll points	Record
1	North Carolina	2	7	199	6–0–3
2	Stanford	3	0	189	7–0–1
3	Florida State	4	1	184	6–0–0
4	Penn State	6	0	172	7–0–1
5	UCLA	5	0	170	6–1–0
6	Brigham Young	1	0	156	7–1–1
7	South Carolina	9	0	150	7–1–1
8	Clemson	8	0	135	6–1–2
9	Alabama	7	0	133	6–0–4
10	Notre Dame	13	0	114	5–1–2
11	Arkansas	11	0	104	5–2–1
12	Memphis	14	0	96	7–1–0
13	Santa Clara	12	0	94	6–1–2
14	Texas	16	0	92	7–1–1
14	Princeton	NR	0	92	5–1–1
16	Duke	15	0	85	5–2–0
17	Georgetown	10	0	73	4–1–3
18	Northwestern	18	0	67	7–0–2
19	Michigan	19	0	52	5–1–2
20	Colorado	22	0	47	8–1–0
21	Gonzaga	21	0	38	7–1–1
22	Virginia	20	0	30	5–0–3
22	Georgia	23	0	30	4–1–3
24	Washington State	24	0	21	7–1–0
25	Texas Tech	RV	0	19	7–0–2

Also receiving votes: Saint Louis (16), SMU (15), Central Florida (14), Xavier (9), Iowa (2) and Pittsburgh (2).

Top 10 in RPI

Rank	Team	League	Record	Road	Home
1	North Carolina	ACC	6-0-3	1-0-2	5-0-1
2	Penn State.	Big Ten	6-0-1	1-0-0	5-0-1
3	Florida State	ACC	6-0-0	4-0-0	2-0-0
4	Stanford	Pac-12	7-0-1	3-0-1	4-0-0
5	Alabama	SEC	6-0-4	4-0-1	2-0-3
6	Clemson	ACC	6-1-2	2-0-1	4-1-1
7	Mississippi St.	SEC	6-1-2	1-0-2	5-1-0
8	Georgia	SEC	4-1-3	1-1-1	3-0-2
9	Texas Tech	Big 12	7-0-2	0-0-2	6-0-0
10	Missouri	SEC	5-1-2	2-1-1	2-0-1

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