Previewing The 2008 Women's Soccer Season
Aug. 2, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--In life most everything is relative. That analogy is an apt description of the 2007 University of North Carolina women's soccer season and it might go a long way towards determining how Coach Anson Dorrance's team approaches the 2008 campaign. A year ago the Tar Heels finished 19-4-1 overall and 9-1-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference to claim the outright ACC regular-season championship. The Tar Heels won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and merited their 26th successive NCAA bid. Carolina also advanced to the third round in the NCAA Tournament for the 26th straight season and kept alive its streak of never having lost in the first two rounds of tournament play. For most programs the accomplishments of the 2007 season would be cause for celebration. Carolina won its 18th ACC regular-season title and its seventh in a row. UNC's ACC Tournament championship was its 18th in the 20 years of the tournament and its third in a row. In the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, Carolina earned its first-ever penalty kick shootout win in history after having gone 0-3 prior to that.
But to many observers the season might have been viewed as somewhat of a disappointment, especially since the Tar Heels were coming off an NCAA championship in 2006 and were the unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the polls in 2007. The Tar Heels' 19 wins were the fewest for the team since 1988, the four losses were the most since 1980 and the team was shutout three times, the most in a season in school history. UNC's 56 goals were the fewest in a season in history and the Tar Heels exited the NCAA Tournament at the earliest point since 2004. But given the fact that Heather O'Reilly and Elizabeth Guess had combined to either score or assist on 59 percent of UNC's goals in 2006, it may not have been the biggest surprise in the world that the Tar Heels had to make some adjustments last year to retool its offensive attack. Carolina also scored an abnormally high number of unassisted goals (20 of 56) and it recorded only 49 assists on its 56 goals.
The good news, however, is the fact the Tar Heels return all three starters in the striker corps, all three starters in the attacking midfield corps and they have added several players to the roster who will give the team significantly more quality depth in attacking positions than the squad had last year. Coach Anson Dorrance, who was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, will begin his 30th season as the Tar Heels' head mentor. He boasts an incredible record of 648-32-19 in his first 29 seasons as the head coach. He must replace three starters and six letter winners from the 2007 season. The three starters were all four-year regulars in the UNC defense with center back Jessica Maxwell, left back Ariel Harris and playmaking center midfielder Robyn Gayle all leaving the Tar Heel program. Other players lost to graduation include forwards Jaime Gilbert and Katie Brooks and midfielder Julie Yates. UNC returns nine players who started a majority of the games in 2007, including the co-starters in the goal. In addition, five other Tar Heels return who have had significant starting experience in their careers and 23 letter winners overall return from last season. To this mix, Carolina adds eight freshmen and one junior transfer from a recruiting class ranked No. 2 in the nation by Soccer Buzz Magazine. The Tar Heels will need this kind of experience as Dorrance has set up a docket which would challenge the most experienced of teams. Beginning with the earliest season opener in UNC history on August 22 against Charlotte, the Tar Heels will play 14 of 19 games this season against teams which qualified to play in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. This group of team includes seven of nine non-conference opponents and seven of their 10 foes in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The opponents UNC will face who were in last year's NCAA Tournament include Charlotte on August 22 in Chapel Hill; Texas A&M on August 29 in College Station, Texas; Tennessee on August 31 in College Station, Texas; Notre Dame on September 5 in Chapel Hill; Stanford on September 12 in Palo Alto, Calif.; Santa Clara on September 14 in Palo Alto, Calif.; Georgia on September 19 in Durham, N.C.; Clemson on September 25 in Clemson, S.C.; Duke on October 2 in Durham, N.C.; Wake Forest on October 5 in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Boston College on October 9 in Chapel Hill; Virginia on October 24 in Charlottesville, Va.; Florida State on October 30 in Chapel Hill; and Miami on November 2 in Chapel Hill. At the forward position, the Tar Heels return all three starters from the 2007 season, the three players who ranked No. 1-2-3 on the Tar Heel roster in scoring last season. The three starters are junior Casey Nogueira of Raleigh, N.C. and junior Nikki Washington of Mesquite, Texas on the wings and junior Whitney Engen of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. in the center. Nogueira was UNC's leading scorer last season with 29 points on a team-leading 13 goals and three assists. She also led the Tar Heels in game-winning goals with five while earning first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors. Washington, who was the Most Valuable Player of the 2007 ACC Tournament, was the team's second-leading scorer with 21 points on seven goals and seven assists. Engen ranked third on the team in points with 20 points as she scored six goals and had a team-leading eight assists. Other returning letter winners on the forward line include redshirt junior Sterling Smith of Chapel Hill, N.C., who started 16 games for the Tar Heels in 2006, as well as sophomores Katie Klimczak of Elk Grove Village, Ill., and Leslie Briggs of Carrolton, Texas. Carolina has also brought in six players who have earned high school All-America honors at forward and played on youth national teams as club players. This group includes freshmen Brittani Bartok of Union, N.J., Courtney Jones of Danville, Calif., Merritt Mathias of Birmingham, Ala., Rachel Wood of Laguna Niguel, Calif., and Emmalie Pfankuch of Fort Collins, Colo., as well as junior transfer Jessica McDonald of Glendale, Ariz. The Tar Heels boast a deep and talented midfield unit led by a pair of consensus All-Americas in Yael Averbuch, a senior from Upper Montclair, N.J., and Tobin Heath, a junior from Basking Ridge, N.J. Both players were first-team All-ACC selections last year and Averbuch was a first-team All-America as named by the NSCAA, Soccer America and Soccer Buzz in 2007. At 20 years old, Heath was the youngest player to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team which competed in Beijing in August 2008. She was a first-team All-America last year as named by the NSCAA and a second-team choice by Soccer America and Soccer Buzz. Averbuch was UNC's fourth-leading scorer in 2007 with six goals and six assists for 18 points while Heath had two goals and five assists last season. Two other returning starters in the midfield for Carolina include senior Allie Long of Northport, N.Y. and redshirt sophomore Ali Hawkins of Encinitas, Calif. Long, who can play playmaking center midfield or on the wing, was sixth on the team in points last year with 10 as she scored five goals, including two on penalty kicks. Hawkins was a redshirt last year after undergoing ACL surgery but in 2006 she started 25 games and had 15 points on six goals and three assists. Carolina has three other returning letter winners in the midfield who should play a major role in sophomore Erin Mikula of New Richmond, Ohio, sophomore Maria Lubrano of High Point, N.C., and junior Ashley Moore of Clifton Park, N.Y. Incoming freshmen in the midfield are Pammy Boneparth of Lawrence, N.Y. and Kim Currie of Lumberton, N.C. On defense, UNC's most experienced player by far is junior Kristi Eveland of Southlake, Texas who has 49 games for the Tar Heels over the past two years. Eveland is expected to move to the center back position in UNC's flat back three defense. Two sophomores who started on a part-time basis in 2007 are top candidates to start at the wings in the defensive backfield. These two players are Meghan Klingenberg of Gibsonia, Pa. and Rachel Givan of Ridgeland, Mississippi. Klingenberg started nine games last year and Givan 11. Klingenberg was a first-team freshman All-America as named by Soccer America and she was also named to the ACC All-Freshman Team. Klingenberg played all over the field last year and was the fifth-leading scorer with five goals and three assists for 13 points. She had three game-winning goals including overtime game-winners against Florida State and Boston College on the road. Other returning letter winners who could see considerable playing time on defense include redshirt junior Betsy Frederick of Raleigh, N.C., senior Mandy Moraca of Mantua, N.J. and junior Caroline Boneparth of Lawrence, N.Y. Sophomore letter winner Katie Lutz of Waxhaw, N.C. and freshman Caroline Early of Charlotte, N.C. will add depth for the Tar Heels on defense. All four goalkeepers on the 2007 roster return for the Tar Heels include last year's co-starters Anna Rodenbough of Greensboro, N.C. and Ashlyn Harris of Satellite, Fla. Rodenbough started 15 games last season and Harris started nine. Altogether, Rodenbough has started 49 games over the past three years. Rodenbough led the Tar Heels last year in goals against average at 0.46 while Harris led in minutes played with 1,220, saves with 29 and solo shutouts with three. Rodenbough finished with a 9-3 record last year and Harris was 10-1-1. Other returning letter winners in the goalkeeping position for UNC are sophomore Amanda Tucker of Seminole, Fla. and sophomore Monica Welsh-Loveman of Wellesley, Mass. |
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