By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Plenty was different at Dorrance Field on Thursday. But plenty looked familiar, like a rising star taking over a match and a Hall of Fame coach yelling at the players.
It was the first home match in program history without the facility’s namesake as the head coach but the result was like most home openers over the years.
In Damon Nahas’ first home game as interim coach, the No. 5 Tar Heels earned an entertaining 4–3 victory over No. 16 Georgia on Thursday behind two dazzling Olivia Thomas second-half goals. UNC (3–0–0) remained unbeaten in home openers since the renovated facility was named after legendary retired coach Anson Dorrance.
Dorrance wasn’t far from his usual spot but had a different angle. He sat in the first row of the stands directly above the bench and players could hear him shouting at them.
“It felt just like last season,” Thomas said. “I could hear him in the stands, and it was nice; it was cool. It feels the same because he still comes to our practices.”
She heard Dorrance tell her to “go forward” at one point and praise her at one point, “Olivia, good stuff.”
“It just shows the love that he has for the program and wants us to succeed,” said Nahas, who joked that he didn’t know if it was flashbacks when he heard instructions from Dorrance.
Nahas is more active on the sidelines, pacing at times, than Dorrance, but that was no different from his eight seasons as Dorrance’s assistant. Nahas didn’t sit in the chair along the bench Dorrance used to occupy.
“Just in respect to him, for the first opening game, I didn’t want to sit in that seat,” Nahas said. “For me, that was an homage to him a bit, just to say, ‘thank you.’ I’m always having him on my mind, and I know he’s supporting me along the way.”
As for the tie that Dorrance always wore on the sideline? Nahas opted for a T-shirt, saying of the tie, “That’s just not me.”
Carolina found out what it missed when Thomas was out for the entire NCAA tournament and was slowed much of last season with a hamstring injury. The sophomore forward who scored one goal last season has already played more than half the minutes she logged as a freshman.
Nahas said that all young players want to make a play on the field and get frustrated when that doesn’t happen, and that he’s worked with Thomas to be more patient and calm.
“She’s so physically aggressive, that sometimes it goes against her,” Nahas said. “And when she has a better feeling about herself, relaxed, she actually is faster and stronger. So, today she felt a little bit of calm. Her decision-making’s better. You just want your forward to be able to feel the net. And she did today. So she deserved those two goals.
Thomas, showing that she will give opponents fits, was all over the field, earning her first career brace, outshooting Georgia 7–6 with six shots on goal.
“I’m just always looking to get it in. That’s my goal. So I take as many shots as I can if the opportunity presents itself,” Thomas said. “I’ve just developed a lot more since I was injured.”
UNC moved the ball well with crisp passing and denied Georgia much chance to do anything offensively, particularly in the first half, forcing the Bulldogs to make tough passes. Nahas said his team did pass better but said that they were faster on the Dorrance turf than the high grass the Tar Heels played on in Sunday’s 3–2 win at Colorado.
Carolina scored in the 35th minute when forward Kate Faasse took a long diagonal pass from Makenna Dominguez and tapped it near the goal. Referees initially ruled that Thomas was offside but that got reversed during a replay review.
Georgia (0–1–1) tied it in the 52nd minute when forward Margie Detirizio challenged UNC goaltender Clare Gagne one-on-one and beat her for a score. It was the Bulldogs’ first score of the season after playing Pittsburgh to a scoreless draw in their opener.
It took only 9½ minutes for Thomas to regain the lead, rifling in her first goal of the season on a nice pass from forward Linda Ullmark in the 61st minute. Less than three minutes later, she fired in a left-footed shot to make it 3–1 off of assists from Ullmark and Bella Sember in the 64th minute.
Georgia took only 62 seconds to trim UNC’s lead down to one on forward Hannah White’s unassisted score in the 65th minute.
Freshman UNC midfielder Bella Gaetino rocketed in a free kick with 20 minutes left to push the lead back to two.
Georgia, which had scored one goal in five previous meetings with UNC, got a third score on another unassisted goal from White with 32 seconds left.
Nahas admitted that it was annoying that a match that UNC mostly dominated, outshooting the Bulldogs 19–6, ended up being a one-goal game.
“That’s the way the game is,” he said. “They were waiting for a mistake. They were waiting for some moments when you turn off. You feel like you’re in control, and you take a little bit of casual moment, and all of a sudden, a really good forward makes you pay.”
NOTES — Carolina plays the second of four consecutive home matches at noon Sunday (ACC Network) against Arizona, which was 6–8–5 last season. The Wildcats took a 2–0–0 record into their home game Thursday night against Northern Arizona. … There were no corner kicks in the first half. … UNC is 6–0–0 against Georgia, outscoring the Bulldogs 27–4, with the last three matches in Chapel Hill. … Carolina is 41–2–2 all-time in home openers.
No. 5 UNC 4, No. 16 Georgia 3
| 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 |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
tarheeltribune.com 
1 Comment