By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina’s quest for its 23rd women’s soccer national championship got off to a good start.

After a 12-day break, the No. 13-ranked and No. 3-seed Tar Heels rallied from a one-goal first-half deficit to beat Towson 3–1 in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill.

Redshirt sophomore midfielder Ally Sentnor (top photo) fired in the game-winner in the 60th minute, her eighth goal of the season, and assisted on a score from senior forward Avery Patterson in the 84th minute to put the game away.

The Tar Heels (11–1–8), who hadn’t played since losing 2–1 in overtime to Pittsburgh in the first round of the ACC tournament on Oct. 29, next play No. 6-seed Alabama (12–4–5) next Friday in Lubbock, Texas. The Tide beat Western Carolina on Friday 2–0.

Towson took the lead in the 25th minute when Jasmine Hamid’s shot got past the fingertips of UNC goaltender Emmie Allen.

After trailing in the shot total 7–2 early, a flurry of late first-half shots finally produced a result when Bella Sember broke through in the 44th minute.

Talia Dellaperuta nearly scored shortly after Sentnor’s goal, but Towson goaltender Riley Melendez just got her fingertips on the ball.

NOTES — UNC and Alabama played a 1–1 draw in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sept. 10. … UNC outshot Towson 21–9 and had edges of 12–3 in shots on goal and 6–3 on corners. … Carolina is 145–17–5 in NCAA tournament games and is the only program that has earned berths in all 42 tournaments. … UNC is 24–1 all-time in NCAA first-round games, with the only setback a 1–0 home loss to South Carolina in 2021. … This is the third time UNC has been a No. 3 seed after 1982, when the Tar Heels won the first NCAA title and 2015, when they advanced to the second round.

No. 12 UNC 3, Towson 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