Covering Carolina sports beyond just men's basketball and football — with the most complete women's basketball coverage
CHAPEL HILL — Still grieving about Monday’s tragic campus shooting and processing the week’s events, the No. 4 North Carolina women’s soccer team tried to find joy on the pitch the evening after classes resumed. If only for two hours, Thursday night’s match against Gardner-Webb offered the Tar Heels players a distraction from the mental fatigue of what happened. Most of the players wore black wristbands in memory of professor Zijie Yan.
Anybody who has watched North Carolina’s women’s soccer team this season knows that the Tar Heels, who fell one spot in the United Soccer Coaches national poll to No. 4, have performed as well as any team in the country defensively, and it’s showing in the weekly ACC awards. UNC (2–0–2), which has only allowed one goal in four games, slipped in the poll after playing Wisconsin to a scoreless draw on Thursday before blowing out USC 4–0 Sunday. The Trojans moved up five spots to No. 19.
As ACC adds Stanford and Cal beginning in the 2024–25 school year, the first concern should be for the athletes who must routinely take cross-country flights while also being students. The travel sounds daunting because it is. But there are scheduling models that could make it easier.
CHAPEL HILL — No. 3 Carolina continued its unyielding defensive ways and turned up the offense to match Sunday, thanks to one of the heralded members of the Tar Heels’ No. 1-ranked freshman class. Midfielder Evelyn Shores, playing in only her second game since recovering from an injury, came off the bench to earn a brace with two second-half goals in less than 2½ minutes and spark the Tar Heels’ 4–0 rout of No. 24 USC on a hot afternoon at Dorrance Field.
CHAPEL HILL — The scoring chances kept coming for No. 3 Carolina down the stretch. But a player wearing light blue denied the Tar Heels repeatedly. The Tar Heels played well and were unrelenting on defense. But Wisconsin fifth-year goalkeeper Erin McKinney, clad in shorts and a jersey that were light blue, made terrific saves all afternoon as the teams played to a scoreless draw on a steamy Thursday afternoon at Dorrance Field.
North Carolina fell one spot to No. 3 in the latest United Soccer Coaches women’s Top 25 on Tuesday, but star freshman center back Savy King in ACC Defensive Player of the Week. The Tar Heels (1–0–1) played Penn State (1–0–1) to a scoreless draw Thursday before knocking off Cal 3–1 in their home opener on Sunday. The Nittany Lions moved up two spots to No. 8.
CHAPEL HILL — UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance has no interest in the ACC adding Stanford and Cal, clearly backing Carolina’s reported vote against such a move. After the Tar Heels beat the Bears 3–1 in their home opener on Sunday, he bristled at any suggestion that the matchup could be a conference game in the future.
CHAPEL HILL — Carolina’s freshmen haven’t taken long to prove they’re worthy of being ranked the country’s No. 1 group in the class. Two freshmen, Melina Rebimbas and Olivia Thomas, scored their first college goals and another, Mia Oliaro, added an assist to lead No. 2 North Carolina to a 3–1 victory Sunday over Cal at Dorrance Field in its home opener.
No. 2-ranked North Carolina couldn’t create enough quality chances, but the Tar Heels’ defense and goalkeeping stood tall in an opening-game 0–0 draw against No. 10 Penn State at State College, Pa., on a soggy field. While the Tar Heels held a 19–5 shot advantage, they only got two shots on goal compared to three for Penn State.
CHAPEL HILL — When Anson Dorrance knows his Carolina women’s soccer team is one of the best in the country, he has a history of putting together a schedule that challenges his players. He took that to extremes 31 years ago for a team that included Mia Hamm and Christine Lilly, stacking four games in four days on the West Coast.
tarheeltribune.com 