Covering Carolina athletics beyond men’s basketball and football, with dedicated reporting on women’s basketball and baseball, in addition to covering other sports that rarely draw media attention
CHAPEL HILL — In their first match since falling from the No. 1 ranking, North Carolina showed why it earned that standing by battling well during its second top-10 clash in five days. After falling at No. 4 Wake Forest on Sunday, the Tar Heels earned a 1–0 victory over No. 7 Stanford in their first game at Dorrance Field in 21 days and their second top-10 win of the season.
UNC women’s soccer’s talent pipeline keeps producing. Carolina commit Maddie DiMaria scored six goals in one match and four in another as the United States U-17 Women’s National Team rolled to two wins in its first two matches at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Salé, Morocco.
Aside from the surging football team, every other Carolina fall team sport is now ranked, with the men’s soccer team debuting at No. 16 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. The Tar Heels fell off the top spot in the women’s soccer poll but only to No. 2, while the field hockey team moved up one spot to No. 9 and the volleyball team held at No. 23.
One week after becoming the top-ranked women’s soccer team, North Carolina is now the unanimous No. 1 team in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, and Bella Devey is the ACC Offensive Player of the Week.
In North Carolina’s first match as the nation’s No. 1-ranked women’s soccer team, the Tar Heels certainly played like it in seizing control early. Sophomore forward Bella Devey scored two goals in 26 seconds, both in the first 9½ minutes, as the Tar Heels rolled to a 3–1 victory over No. 16 Virginia to remain unbeaten in 18 all-time meetings in Charlottesville, Va.
North Carolina jumped six spots to No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches women’s soccer Top 25 poll after the Tar Heels extended their win streak to six with two victories last week. It’s the first time UNC has been No. 1 since the preseason poll last season and the 38th time in the top spot in program history. The six consecutive weeks in the top 10 are the most since a 15-week streak capped by that 2025 top ranking. Its previous best ranking this season was No. 7 three times, including the last two polls.
CHAPEL HILL — Playing with impressive fight to easily overcome missing five starters, No. 7 North Carolina shot down No. 2 Duke’s unbeaten run. The Blue Devils, coming off a blowout of a then-No. 1 Stanford that was without six players at the U-20 World Cup, couldn’t take advantage of a short-handed Tar Heels team.
North Carolina stayed at No. 7 in the women’s soccer poll ahead of Thursday’s clash with No. 2 Duke while the Tar Heels fell in the field hockey and volleyball polls. The field hockey team (3–3), No. 2 in the preseason poll, dropped six spots to a season-low No. 11, and the volleyball team (4–2) fell seven spots to No. 15.
No. 7 UNC and No. 3 Duke earned very different 5–0 home women’s soccer victories ahead of their big clash in Chapel Hill on Thursday night. While Carolina got its win over 3–4–1 NJIT, No. 271 in the Massey Ratings, at Dorrance Field on Sunday, the victory for the Blue Devils (7–0–1) a few miles away in Durham was over No. 1 Stanford for their fifth consecutive victory.
CHAPEL HILL — Stanford came to Dorrance Field with a win in every match and top-ranked in the country, but North Carolina matched the Cardinal blow for blow in a 2–2 draw on a steamy Friday night that could have gone either way in the final 20 minutes.
North Carolina matched its season-high ranking in the Top 25 women’s soccer poll, moving up two spots to No. 7 after a pair of victories last week in Arizona. The Tar Heels (5-1) defeated Arizona 2-1 on Thursday and Arizona State 1-0 on Sunday. They are one of seven ACC teams in the United Soccer Coaches poll and one of five ranked in the top 10.
Tar Heels fans have long known how to celebrate a win, a rivalry, and pretty much anything involving the color Carolina blue. Now, for the first time, they can toast to it with something that shows their school spirit via official spirits. UNC Athletics has teamed up with North Carolina-based Cape Fear Distillery to launch the Spirit of Carolina Collection, the university’s first officially licensed line of Tar Heels-branded spirits.
After thousands of miles of travel that included a trip to Dublin and a pair of victories in Arizona, No. 9 North Carolina finally heads home. The Tar Heels closed out the road trip with stingy defense and a clutch penalty kick, escaping a match they controlled all day with a 1–0 victory Sunday over Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
No. 9 North Carolina opened its western road swing during one of the program’s most challenging road trips in years with a hard-fought test Thursday night, escaping with a 2–1 women’s soccer win over Arizona in Tucson. The Tar Heels (4–1) were playing their first match since their 3–0 win over Shelbourne FC in Dublin on Friday, and they made the long trip Sunday from there to Arizona, with an eight-hour time difference.
DUBLIN — The North Carolina women’s soccer team headed across the Atlantic this week, and the trip carried plenty of challenges and history along with it. The Tar Heels are in Dublin to face Shelbourne FC in an international friendly on Friday at 2 p.m. ET, a day before the UNC football team takes on TCU in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The games will be played in stadiums less than four miles apart, with the soccer match at Tolka Park and the football game at Aviva Stadium.
