Sept. 26, 1999

Chapel Hill, N.C.—The third-ranked University of North Carolina field hockey team defeated eighth-ranked James Madison 3-2 Sunday afternoon at Francis E. Henry Stadium to improve to 8-1 on the season.

Carolina sophomore Abby Martin scored first, on a penalty corner less than four minutes into the game. After James Madison tied the score on a goal by Traci Forchetti, junior Kristen McCann answered with an unassisted goal to put the Tar Heels up 2-1 at halftime. JMU's Julie Martinez scored with 29:52 to tie the score before UNC sophomore Katie McDonald put her team ahead for good with a goal deemed "brilliant" by UNC coach Karen Shelton.

"It was a hard-fought contest that went end-to-end," Shelton said. "I feel good about this one because I think our team grows from these kinds of games."

The Tar Heels have played the past four games without All-America back Jana Toepel, who was competing in an Olympic Test Event in Australia as a part of the U.S. National Team. The U.S. finished second to Australia in the four-team event and Toepel will rejoin UNC for this Saturday's game at Wake Forest. "Jana will come back a better player after this experience and she'll rejoin an improved team," Shelton said. "With her gone, other people got more playing time and had to step up and be leaders. I told our team I'd be happy if we went 3-1 while Jana was gone and we've gone 4-0. I'm incredibly proud of the team."

Saturday's 1 p.m. game at Wake Forest will count in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. Sunday's 1 p.m. game at Duke, the teams' second meeting of the season, is a non-conference game.

Scoring: UNC–Abby Martin (Abbey Woolley, Erin Cox), 31:35, 1st, JMU–Traci Forchetti (Whitney Diebolt), 25:07, 1st, UNC–Kristen McCann, 24:07, 1st, JMU–Julie Martinez (Heidi Amaudon), 29:52, 2nd, UNC–Katie McDonald, 11:22, 2nd

Shots on goal: JMU 13, UNC 13
Goalkeeper saves: JMU (Amanda Latz) 5, UNC (Amy Tran) 6
Defensive saves: JMU 0, UNC 0
Penalty corners: JMU 8, UNC 5