By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — While the shots were hard to come by for No. 10 North Carolina, goaltender Merritt Skubisz and her defense kept the Tar Heels in the game.
The sophomore goaltender got her second shutout of the weekend to push No. 2 Princeton into a shootout, where Carolina prevailed 3–2 to earn a 1–0 victory in a thriller Sunday at Karen Shelton Stadium.
It was an epic battle of national powers and the third game this season for UNC (2–2), No. 2 in the preseason poll, against a team currently ranked in the top 10. The Heels lost losing two overtime games last weekend in Winston-Salem: 2–1 to No. 8 Michigan and 3–2 to No. 4 Iowa.
“I think Merritt played her heart out, had a great game and a great overtime shootout sequence,” UNC coach Erin Matson said of the sophomore, who made five saves after stopping seven against Michigan.
UNC midfielder Sofia Ferri is a freshman, but didn’t play like it this weekend, following up on her two-goal game in Friday’s 7–0 victory over Penn with a confident move to score on the fifth round of the shootout and end the game.
“I can’t not talk about Sofia Ferri putting it away at the end, but she’s playing great all game long defensively and on the attack, both sides of the game,” Matson said. “For a freshman to be in that position, packed stands, cheering your name, sudden death, and needing to put it away — otherwise we’d continue — I think it just speaks to who she is as a player.
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After getting fouled on her first try to win the game in the fifth round of the shootout, Ferri was money on the second try. She made a spin move on Princeton goaltender Olivia Caponiti, then her lunging shot ended the game.
“I just remember thinking, ‘My whole entire team wants to win. I want to win. Staff wants to win. Carolina wants to win, and the goalie’s stalling,’ ” Ferri said. “Obviously, I’m freaking out. I just had to put in the goal, and that’s what I did. But obviously, we wouldn’t have got there without Merritt. She played amazing in the game and in the shootouts.”
The move that beat Caponiti wasn’t the one Ferri planned to use first.
“The first one didn’t work. It was just a pull ride,” she said of the first try, “so I’ve got to change it up. Felt comfortable doing it. I felt confident doing it. And in a shootout, that’s what you want to do. You want to do what you think is confident, what you think you’re gonna do, and the confidence you have in that move. And that’s what I thought in that moment. And I thought I was gonna execute that, so I did it, and it got in the goal.”
Ferri doesn’t think about the fact that she’s only playing in her fourth college game.
“I think about playing for a team that has my back and playing for a team that I want to be on, and I feel very supported,” she said.
After making five saves in regulation and overtime, Princeton (1–1) managed to get two shootout goals off Skubisz, who has played every minute of three games this season after only playing halves last season.
Her play was crucial with Princeton outshooting the Tar Heels 15–9, with advantages of 6–3 in shots on goal and 8–2 on corners.
Both teams had one shot in the first quarter, and there were no penalty corners.
The game may never have gotten to overtime if not for Skubisz’s sprawling stick save with 13 seconds left in the first half. Princeton’s Reese Milone shot into what was an open cage, but Skubisz stopped it about a foot from the goal line.
That came on the second of two corners eight seconds apart, preserving a scoreless first half after the Tigers outshot the Tar Heels 3–2 and had a 2–1 corners advantage.
Skubisz described reading the play before the ball ever reached her.
“I was on the ground already. I had lunged, and the ball got slipped to the inserter, and I looked over my shoulder, and I knew — based off just how we set up our defense, and based off our scout — she didn’t have heavy marking,” Skubisz said. “And so I knew I was the last line to get there.
“No one else was gonna be behind the ball, so I just put my stick on the ground,” she said. “And, as a goalie, I’ve learned that field players, when they’re under pressure situations like that, they just push the ball in. Ninety percent of the time, it stays on the ground. So, I do what I can to cover that ground and hope it hits my stick, and that’s exactly what it did.”
Skubisz made a pair of amazing saves, one a pad save, in the first four minutes of the second half.
In the last minute of the third quarter, senior forward Charly Bruder was just wide of the cage on a shot, and Caponiti stopped a shot by senior midfielder Ella Barbacci, Carolina’s first shot on goal.
Caponiti made a pad save on a shot from graduate midfielder Molly Catchpole with 32 seconds left in regulation. She made a kick save on a Cecily Moorhead shot in the 68th minute as UNC got off two shots in the first seven minutes of overtime.
Skubisz saved Princeton shots in the first two rounds of the shootout, with UNC converting on shots from junior midfielder Coco Courtright and sophomore forward Reese Anetsberger.
The Tigers tied the shootout on conversions from Milone and Gabriella Anderson before Ferri won it.
The new sudden-death overtime format is 15 minutes of 11-on-11 play. It’s a big switch from the traditional seven-on-seven sudden death format with two 10-minute periods.
“Personally, we liked the old overtime rules because they were a different game. It took more coaching. It took learning the sequences of 7 v 7. It’s very different than 11 v 11,” Matson said. “To us, it’s just another quarter of play, and then I think the majority will still end in a shootout, so we’ll see if it sticks.”
Skubisz said she likes playing every minute of three games this season, a stark contrast from a season ago when she split time and never played more than a half in any game.
“I’ve preferred playing both halves, whether it’s two games or just one, because going in the first half either way it’s fine. It’s the second half that’s much harder if you’re not starting,” she said. “For the full game, it means I get to be part of the conversation in the locker room, and I get to tell them what I need from them. And then I’m already mentally prepped, physically prepped to go in for the second half.”
Matson said Skubisz has developed in every aspect of her game.
“The way she communicates, the demeanor she puts off, her decision-making, and now feeling the confidence is just helping her really step into that role even more,” Matson said.
Ferri said having a goaltender like Skubisz behind the defense changes how the whole unit plays.
“You want someone like Merritt in goal,” Ferri said. “She’s amazing. She can save every shot. She communicates to everyone on the field, she’s so organized with every single person on the field. You hear her, you want to listen, and she demands for everyone to do everything, and I think as a player, you want a goalie like that because it really keeps you in the game.”
Of UNC’s defenders, Matson singled out freshman back Morgan O’Donnell, crediting her with a goal-line save.
Notes
— Carolina returns home at 5 p.m. Friday (ACC Network Extra) to face No. 18 Old Dominion (3–1), which beat Penn 3–0 in Sunday’s first game at Shelton Stadium after losing Friday to Princeton 4–0.
— It was the first shootout in Shelton Stadium since UNC won the 2023 national title had seen a shootout since Carolina claimed the 2023 national title on their home field with a 2–1 victory over Northwestern in the championship game.
— After that, UNC visits Richmond (3–1) next Sunday at noon (ESPN+). The Spiders, who lost 1–0 at home against No. 6 Duke on Aug. 30, beat Longwood 6–0 on Sunday.
— UNC got a Princeton first-quarter penalty corner overturned by calling for a review.
— Carolina has won all 13 consecutive meetings with Princeton.
No. 10 UNC 2, No. 2 Princeton 0
(3-2 shootout win)
| Date | Month/day | Time/ score | Opponent/event (current ranking) | Record/ TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August | ACC/Big Ten Challenge in Winston-Salem | |||
| 28 | Friday | L, 2–1, OT | No. 8 Michigan | 0–1 |
| 30 | Sunday | L, 3–2, OT | No. 4 Iowa | 0–2 |
| September | ||||
| 4 | Friday | W, 7–0 | Penn | 1–2 |
| 6 | Sunday | W, 1–0, OT (3–2 shootout) | No. 2 Princeton | 2–2 |
| 11 | Friday | 5 p.m. | No. 18 Old Dominion | ACCNE |
| 13 | Sunday | Noon | at Richmond | ESPN+ |
| 20 | Sunday | Noon | vs. No. 5 Virginia | ACCN |
| 25 | Friday | 9 p.m. ET | at Stanford | |
| 27 | Sunday | 4 p.m. ET | at California | |
| October | ||||
| 2 | Friday | 3 p.m. | at No. 15 Louisville | |
| 9 | Friday | 3 p.m. | at Saint Joseph’s | |
| 11 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | at No. 14 Liberty | |
| 16 | Friday | 6 p.m. | vs. Boston College | ACCNE |
| 18 | Sunday | 2 p.m. | vs. No. 12 Syracuse | ACCN |
| 23 | Friday | 6 p.m. | vs. No. 7 Wake Forest | ACCNE |
| 25 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | at Appalachian State | |
| 30 | Friday | 6 p.m. | at No. 6 Duke | ACCN |
| November | ACC tournament | |||
| 3–6 | Tue.–Fri | At Karen Shelton Stadium | ACCN | |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 13 | Friday | TBA | First round Campus sites | |
| 15 | Sunday | TBA | Second round Campus sites | |
| 20 | Friday | TBA | National semifinals Louisville | |
| 23 | Sunday | TBA | Championship Louisville |
Photos courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications
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