By R.L. Bynum
No Tar Heels team has lost since college athletics resumed in August. Carolina has been unbeatable in 17 events over seven sports, with five teams ranked.
After a win by the football team, two field hockey wins, two volleyball wins and a women’s soccer win over the weekend, UNC is a collective 15–0–1. In addition, the men’s and women’s cross country teams, both ranked, each finished in first place at the season-opening Charlotte Opener meet.
Of course, the win that got the most attention was the 19–17 victory for Coach Mack Brown’s football team in Thursday night’s nationally televised win at Minnesota.
But the football team was just joining the party.
The athletics department’s only blemish is the men’s soccer team’s scoreless draw on Aug. 25 against California Baptist. Coach Carlos Somoano’s No. 17-ranked team (3–0–1) beat East Tennessee State 6–0 Monday night.
Coach Erin Matson’s two-time reigning NCAA champion field hockey team (2–0) opened the season in Ann Arbor, Mich., with a pair of wins at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The No. 2 Tar Heels beat No. 12 Michigan 4–1 on Friday and No. 6 Iowa 2–0 on Sunday.
UNC’s field hockey team, which doesn’t play at home until Sept. 18 against Wake Forest, plays two games at the ACC-Ivy League Conference Crossover next weekend in Louisville, meeting Penn at 1 p.m. Friday and No. 15 Princeton at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Interim coach Damon Nahas’ No. 5-ranked women’s soccer team surged to 6–0–0, dominating two home victories to extend its shutout streak to three matches. UNC outshot North Dakota 41–0 (13–0 for shots on goal) in Thursday’s 3–0 win and outshot Seton Hall 23–6 in Sunday’s 2–0 win.
Nahas’ team plays at Duke at 7 p.m. Thursday (ACC Network) in a game that doesn’t count in the ACC standings.
Coach Mike Schall’s volleyball team is 3–0, sweeping opponents in three straight sets in three home victories. The Tar Heels, who knocked off Charleston on Saturday and Western Carolina on Sunday, play in Columbia, S.C., next weekend. They face Temple at 3 p.m. Saturday and South Carolina at 2 p.m. Sunday.
At the Charlotte Opener, Coach Chris Miltenberg teams claimed six of the top-10 finishers in the men’s event and the top-five finishers in the women’s event. Fatima Alanis was first in the women’s 5,000-meter race in 17 minutes, 23.6 seconds. Colton Sands (14:56.8) was second in the men’s race, representing the top Tar Heels finish in that race.
The men’s team is ranked No. 7, and the women’s team is No. 28.
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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