By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — Undefeated North Carolina badly needed to escape an offensive funk after three consecutive 1–1 draws, and senior day against a bad Syracuse team provided the perfect combination to do that.

Three of 10 players No. 3 UNC honored on senior day — redshirt senior left back Maycee Bell, senior midfielder Sam Meza and senior forward Avery Patterson — scored as the Tar Heels rolled to a 6–1 victory on a warm and sunny fall day at Dorrance Field.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better day today, honestly,” said Patterson, who scored two of the last three goals to push her team-high total to eight.

It was a particularly big day for Bell, who had all seven family members — including three boys her parents adopted — at a UNC game for the first time, scoring her first goal since 2021.

“I’ve been working really hard to try to get that, so it was awesome,” said Bell, who was happy with the entire team’s effort. “It felt amazing. I think that we’ve been playing really well, just haven’t been rewarded for it. And today, we were rewarded for it. So I think we were all happy with our performance today.

UNC coach Anson Dorrance said it was the last regular-season home game for all 10 players honored before the game. All of them will either turn pro or use their extra season under the COVID-19 rule at another school where they might be able to play more.

“We want to find a place where they can play maximum minutes, and obviously, the kids who are playing maximum limits are the ones who don’t have eligibility, like Maycee Bell,” said Dorrance, who used all 26 players he’s allowed to play.

“These are kids worked hard for me in practice, and to get to throw them out there, and they did well,” Dorrance said. “You didn’t really see a drop off when subbed because everyone played with such passion.”

The Tar Heels (10–0–7, 5–0–4 ACC) will likely have to play a first-round game next Sunday in the ACC tournament even with a win Thursday at Boston College. The top two seeds get a bye. One will go to No. 1 Florida State (25 points). The two teams ahead of UNC, No. 8 Clemson (22 points) and No. 12 Notre Dame (20) points play each other and the Tar Heels only have 19 points.

UNC outshot the Orange 42–3 — including a 19–3 edge in shots on goal — as Syracuse became the 16th opponent with 10 shots or fewer and eighth with five or fewer. The Heels had 15 corners, while Syracuse had none.

UNC got several good scoring chances in the first 28 minutes, including having an offside call wipe away a would-be goal and say some nice saves from Syracuse goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch.

“When it gets like that, it’s up to us to keep our heads, not getting frustrated,” Patterson said. “That doubt starts to creep in when you’re not scoring in the first 10 minutes, and the goalkeeper seems to be having the game for life. It’s just having a positive mindset and knowing to just trust the process.”

Carolina finally broke through in the 34th minute on its 15th shot and seventh on goal when Bell took a cross from Maddie Dahlien and fired it in the back of the net from right in front of the goal.

The rout was on when Bella Sember fired in a close-in shot for another goal four minutes later. Meza made it 3–0 in the 48th minute.

Syracuse (2–12–1, 0–7–1), which hasn’t won a game since August and extended its winless streak to 13, didn’t get its first shot until the 39th minute.

Goalkeeper Emmie Allen started and saved the only Syracuse shot she saw in the first half. Nona Reason relieved her for the second half and made one save but also gave up a goal to Erin Fleurey in the 75th minute.

Patterson countered with two goals, the first headed in off of an Emily Moxley pass, in the next seven minutes to shove the lead to 5–1.

“Every time I see Mox goes to wind up, anytime she has her foot on it, I’m just waiting for it to hit my head, so props to her,” Patterson said. “The second one, [associate head coach] Damon [Nahas] told me to tap the ball, get it back and then shoot. For that one, I didn’t really see anyone in front of me, so I just took it myself.”

Freshman midfielder Melina Rebimbas added a score in the 85th minute.

NOTES — Carolina finishes the regular season Thursday at 7 p.m. at Boston College (3–9–4, 0–6–2), which took an eight-game winless streak into its Sunday game against Virginia. The Eagles’ last win was 2–0 over Akron on Sept. 3. … The 10 Tar Heels took part in the senior day pregame ceremony with their families were graduate students Julia Dorsey, Moxley and Isabel Cox; Bell; seniors Paige Tolentino, Meza, Patterson, Talia Dellaperuta and Riley Quinlan; and redshirt junior Kai Hayes. Banners with their pictures were behind one goal. … Carolina has won all nine meetings with Syracuse, outscoring the Orange 32–4.

No. 3 UNC 6, Syracuse 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