By R.L. Bynum

DURHAM — An irritating pattern for North Carolina women’s soccer struck again, leaving them fit to be tied.

It happened in the national championship game against UCLA last season, two weeks earlier against Florida State and Sunday at Duke — a win booted aside by a late opponent goal. There were 16 seconds left against the Bruins and one second left against the Seminoles.

A minute away from victory, Duke forward Kat Rader rocketed in a shot from the right side as the Blue Devils earned a 1–1 draw Sunday in front of many Tar Heels fans at Koskinen Stadium.

“We can sort of add all those different things up,” Dorrance said of the 3–2 overtime loss to UCLA, the 3–3 draw with the Seminoles and the tie with Duke. “This is sort of becoming a theme that we don’t want to keep repeating.”

Although North Carolina has dominated its women’s soccer rivalry with Duke over the years, the Blue Devils have been much tougher recently, and Sunday was no different.

“That’s certainly not the way we want to finish any game, and certainly not a game against our rival,” Dorrance said. “So, there is a bit of a bitter taste in the last minute because you know we let them back in.”

It was their second straight UNC-Duke draw after a 0–0 match in last season’s ACC tournament semifinals, in which the Tar Heels advanced 7–6 on penalty kicks.

“This is possibly a little bit more frustrating because we were in their end most of the time,” Dorrance said, comparing the Duke game to the Florida State game, noting that UNC possessed the ball 58% of the time in both contests. “We’re certainly proud of the way we can keep the ball and how we played in general. We’re not jumping off bridges. [Duke] is a good team.”

UNC (9–0–5, 4–0–2 ACC) is 1–1–2 in the last four meetings against Duke (5–4–3, 1–1–3), which is on a five-game winless streak.

“What I’m most proud of is that we played the worst half of the year in the first half. And the second half, we played a lot better,” Dorrance said.

Redshirt sophomore goaltender Emmie Allen dealt with more of a push from an opponent than usual, tying her season-high against the Seminoles and Arkansas with four saves, but needed one more to preserve the victory.

“She’s a good goalkeeper,” Dorrance said. “I certainly trust her. Obviously, she’s got to learn how to burn the clock better. The series that led to the goal was she caught it and then sort of rushed her kick. It wasn’t a really good kick. Duke had a throw, and they changed their point and, all of a sudden, it’s in the back of her net.”

UNC finally broke through in the 59th minute when Emerson Elgin flicked a pass from the left side to Emily Colton (top photo), who rocketed the ball from 18 yards out off the crossbar and in for her second goal in as many games.

Duke had the better of it against the Tar Heels’ reserves in the last 10 minutes of the first half and became only the third opponent to outshoot UNC in a half this season with a 5–4 edge.

“Our reserves continued to wear them out a bit. I think that contributed to us controlling the game in the second half,” Dorrance. “The reserves were pushed around a bit. But I think resting the first-team players also put us in a wonderful position for the second half.”

Allen made a couple of nice first-half saves. Duke forward Mia Minestrella had the best chance of the first half, but shot wide left of the goal. UNC forward Kate Faasse made a nice run at the ball to knock it away and foil another potential Duke chance.

Duke’s Cameron Roller fouled Isabel Cox in the 78th minute, drawing a penalty kick. After a replay review confirmed the call, Duke coach Robbie Church objected and drew a yellow card. But Duke goaltender Leah Freeman easily stopped the PK from Avery Patterson.

The loss of graduated defender Tori Hansen from last year continues to have an impact both on corner kicks and penalty kicks, two areas where she excelled.

The PK call came after UNC forward Tori Dellaperuta drew no calls when she was knocked down a few times in the first half.

UNC forward Mia Oliaro’s header in the 86th minute went just wide right of the net.

NOTES — Carolina plays at No. 17 Wake Forest at 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN3). Former UNC forward Emily Murphy plays for the Deacons (8–2–3, 2–2–2), who lost 4–1 Sunday at Pittsburgh, and has five goals and one assist. … The only other opponents to outshoot UNC in a half were Virginia (5–4 in the first half of the Tar Heels’ 1–0 road win on Sept. 21) and Florida State (14–9 in a 3–3 draw in Chapel Hill on Sept. 25. … Carolina leads the all-time series with Duke 43–4–4, including 18–0–3 at Duke after the second consecutive tie. The teams played to a double-overtime draw in last season’s ACC tournament, with UNC advancing on penalty kicks 7–6. … … UNC is one of eight unbeaten teams. The others — Maine, Kentucky, South Alabama, Penn State, Texas Tech, Florida State and Stanford — all won Sunday.

No. 1 UNC 1, No. 22 Duke 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