Tar Heel Battle Eagles Tonight In ACC Semifinals
Nov. 6, 2009
Friday's Tar Heel Women's Soccer Game
2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Semifinal Game
No. 3 Seed North Carolina (15-3-1, ACC 7-3, NSCAA No. 5, Soccer America No. 4, Soccer Times No. 5) vs. No. 2 Seed Boston College (15-2-2, ACC 7-2-1, NSCAA No. 7, Soccer America No. 6, Soccer Times No. 6)
Looking Ahead To The Matchup With Boston College Third-seeded North Carolina and second-seeded Boston College will meet Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Soccer Tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The winner of the match will advance to the championship game to be played Sunday at 2 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park against the winner of Friday night's first semifinal game between top-seeded Florida State and fourth-seeded Virginia Tech.
This will be the second time the Tar Heels and the Eagles will have played in the ACC Tournament with Carolina having won the only previous encounter. A year ago the Tar Heels and the Eagles met in the first semifinal game on Friday night with top-seeded UNC prevailing against the fourth-seeded Eagles 2-0 on goals by Nikki Washington and Casey Nogueira.
The Tar Heels enter the match ranked in the Top 5 in the nation in all three national polls. UNC is ranked No. 4 by Soccer America and No. 5 by both the NSCAA coaches and by Soccer Times. Boston College is ranked in the Top 7 in all three polls. The Eagles are ranked No. 6 by Soccer America, No. 7 by the NSCAA and No. 6 by Soccer Times.
Carolina is 15-3-1 overall and finished 7-3 in the ACC regular season while the Eagles are 15-2-2 overall and finished 7-2-1 in the ACC regular season.
Carolina In The ACC Tournament The Tar Heels are playing in the ACC Tournament for the 22nd time in history. UNC has an all-time record of 55-0-3 in ACC Tournament play, a winning percentage of .974. In 58 previous games in ACC Tournament history, UNC has outscored its opponents 196-29.
UNC has reached the championship game in all 21 of the previous tournaments and the Tar Heels have won 19 of the 21 ACC championships. The other two ACC titles were won, respectively, by NC State in 1988 and by Virginia in 2004.
North Carolina is 15-0-1 in its previous 16 ACC Tournament games played at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
Carolina In The ACC Standings
This marks only the fourth time in the 23-year history of ACC women's soccer that the Tar Heels have failed to win the regular-season championship. NC State won the regular-season title in 1988, Duke won it in 1994 and Clemson won it in 2000.
UNC's three conference losses this season were the most in a single year since 2000 when the Tar Heels finished 4-3 in the league.
All told, in 23 years of conference competition the Tar Heels have lost only 10 ACC regular-season matches out of 153 matches played (139-10-4).
In addition, the Tar Heels have never lost an ACC Tournament game and they have never lost a game to an ACC opponent in NCAA Tournament play. There have been three ties in ACC Tournament play and one tie in NCAA Tournament play against conference foes. Highlighting Head Coach Anson Dorrance
Scouting The Tar Heels
2009 Statistical Leaders
2009 Individual Accolades
The Carolina Depth Chart For The Boston College Game
CAROLINA SOCCER NOTES THIS WEEK
Series Notes
•UNC and Boston College will be playing for the 11th time in history on Friday night in Cary, N.C. The Tar Heels lead the all-time series 10-0-0. Since Boston College joined the league in 2005, the Tar Heels are 5-0 against the Eagles in ACC regular-season matches and 1-0 in ACC Tournament matches.
Player Notes
*Jessica McDonald leads the Tar Heels in goals scored this season with eight. She has already exceeded her 2008 season total of five goals by three markers. McDonald had the first multi-goal game of her career with two against Notre Dame on September 4.
•Sophomore Courtney Jones had three assists in UNC's season opener against UCLA on August 22. That was her career high for assists in a game. She had never had more than one in a game previously.
•Fellow sophomore forward Brittani Bartok had two assists in the match against the Bruins, equaling her career high set previously against Illinois on November 22, 2008.
•Freshman Amber Brooks recorded the first point of her career when she assisted on Katie Klimczak's goal in the 87th minute of UNC's win over UCLA on August 22.
•Junior forward Katie Klimczak scored the second goal of her career in UNC's season opener against UCLA on August 22. Ironically, she has scored both of her career goals in season openers. She also tallied against Charlotte on August 22, 2008, exactly one year before she scored the goal against UCLA.
•Sophomore Emmalie Pfankuch had the first multi-point game of her career in UNC's win over UCLA as she had both a goal and an assist in the win over the Bruins.
•Nikki Washington had a pair of assists in UNC's 4-0 win over UCF on August 28, matching her career high for assists in a game. She also had two assists against Charlotte on August 22, 2008.
•Tobin Heath's two-goal output against UCF on August 28 was her first multi-goal game since scoring three goals against Clemson on September 25, 2008.
•Freshman forward Alyssa Rich had the first point of her career with an assist in Carolina's win at Notre Dame September 4. Rich has gone on to score five goals since then, including game-winning tallies against Marquette on September 6 and against Duke in overtime on September 24. Four of Rich's five goals this season have come against ACC opponents.
•Ashlyn Harris' four saves against Notre Dame on September 4 were the most she has had in a game since she had six against Stanford on September 12, 2008.
•Sophomore midfielder Maria Lubrano scored the first goal of her career against Duke on September 24, giving the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead in the 84th minute. The Tar Heels went on to win in overtime 2-1. Lubrano notched her second career goal and the first game-winning goal of her career when the Tar Heels beat Maryland 1-0 on November 1 in College Park, Md.
*Whitney Engen's goal against Wake Forest on September 27 was her first since she scored against UNC Greensboro on November 18, 2007. That was in her second year as a starting forward for the Tar Heels. Engen has played center back as a junior and senior.
•Merritt Mathias' assist in UNC's win over Wake Forest September 27 was her first point since she scored a goal against Maryland on September 28, 2008.
•Erin Mikula's assist against Wake Forest on September 27 was her first point in a game since she scored a goal against Clemson on October 5, 2008.
•Ashlyn Harris had five saves in UNC's 2-1 win at Boston College on October 1. That was only one save away from her career high in a game which was six against Stanford on September 12, 2008.
•Freshman Ranee Premji recorded four assists in UNC's win against NC State October 9. That is one assist shy of the school record for assists in a game that was most recently set by fellow Tar Heel midfield standout Kacey White four years ago. White had five assists in a game against Pepperdine on November 19, 2005. Three other Tar Heels have had five assists in a game. They are Pam Kalinoski against UCF on October 20, 1991, April Heinrichs against Warren Wilson on October 29, 1983 and Emily Scruggs against the Duke Club Team on September 20, 1979.
•Junior midfielder Ali Hawkins moved temporarily into the team lead in scoring with a goal and an assist in UNC's 2-1 win over Virginia October 17. Hawkins has 15 points on the season. She is tied for second on the team in assists with five and is tied for second in goals scored with Alyssa Rich with five behind Jessica McDonald's seven goals.
•Senior Ashlyn Harris matched her career high for saves in a game when she had six against Florida State on October 22.
•Freshman midfielder Lucy Bronze had the first point of her career when she assisted on Meghan Klingenberg's second-half goal against Florida State on October 22.
•Junior midfielder Rachel Givan went the first 16 games of the season without recording a point but she had assists in back-to-back wins against Clemson and Maryland on October 30 and November 1. Givan's assist on a corner kick which led to Maria Lubrano's game-winning goal against the Terrapins was the first game-winning assist of her career.
•North Carolina freshman midfielder Lucy Bronze scored the first goal of her Tar Heel career on a header against Maryland in the quarterfinals of the 2009 ACC Tournament. •Tobin Heath's game-winning goal against Maryland Wednesday night in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals was her first of the season. She has four goals overall but had not scored in a game since she scored twice against UCF in the second game of the campaign. General Notes
•Senior defender Kristi Eveland will become only the 31st player in NCAA history and only the 12th UNC player ever to play in 100 career games when she starts Friday night's ACC Tournament semifinal game against Boston College. Eveland will be starting for the 97th time in her career, the most of any current Tar Heel.
Robin Confer holds the Tar Heel school record and NCAA record for game played in a career with 107 and Yael Averbuch holds the UNC and NCAA records for games started in a career with 105. •North Carolina has clearly played one of the most difficult schedules in the nation so far this season. UNC is 15-3-1 in its first 19 games and 11 of those 19 games have come against teams ranked in the Top 20 of this week's NSCAA national coaches poll.
In fact, the Tar Heels have played six teams ranked in the Top 10 and as of this past Sunday. Carolina's strength of schedule is one of the reasons it was ranked No. 2 in the most recent RPI which was released on Monday.
The Tar Heels beat No. 3 UCLA 7-2, beat No. 4 Notre Dame 6-0, lost to No. 6 Florida State 3-2 in double overtime, beat No. 7 Boston College 2-1, beat No. 9 Central Florida 4-0, beat No. 10 Wake Forest 4-0, beat No. 13 LSU 1-0, beat No. 16 Maryland 1-0 in the regular season and then beat the Terps 3-0 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, lost to No. 19 Virginia Tech 1-0 and beat No. 20 Texas A&M 2-0.
•UNC's three ACC losses in 2009 equal the most the Tar Heels have had in a single season in history. The 2000 team also had three losses, finishing the regular-season at 4-3 in the league. That 2000 team went on to win both the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament championships.
•With back-to-back losses to Florida State and Miami late in the regular season, UNC dropped successive games for the first time since 2000 and only the sixth time in school history. UNC has never lost three games in succession in its 33-year history.
•Despite three ACC losses this year, UNC has amazingly still only lost 10 ACC matches in 23 years of conference competition beginning in 1987. Furthermore, UNC has never lost an ACC Tournament match and has never lost an NCAA Tournament match to an ACC opponent.
•All three of Carolina's losses this year have come by a single goal. UNC has not lost a game by a margin of more than one goal since the final game of the 1985 season. That was a 2-0 loss to George Mason in the NCAA championship game. That two-goal loss came 24 seasons ago.
•UNC has allowed only one first-half goal in first 19 games of the season. Eight of the goals UNC has allowed have come in the second half and one in overtime.
•Carolina's starting defense of senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris as well as senior defenders Whitney Engen and Kristi Eveland and junior defender Rachel Givan earlier this season keyed an incredible effort which resulted in a scoreless streak of nearly 750 minutes of action. UNC had not allowed a goal in 742 minutes and 15 seconds from the time UCLA's Sydney Leroux tallied against Carolina at the 86:39 mark of a 7-2 Tar Heel win on August 22, 2009. However, Duke's KayAnne Gummersall broke that scoreless streak when she scored against Carolina at the 88:54 mark of the match with the Blue Devils on September 24.
•The Tar Heel defense is currently on a three-match shutout string with a 3-0 win over Clemson, a 1-0 win over Maryland and a 3-0 win over Maryland. UNC has not allowed a goal in over 279 minutes since Miami scored at 80:11 of a match on October 25 in Coral Gables. •UNC's defense has allowed only 10 shots in the past three games combined. Clemson did not take a shot against the Tar Heels on October 29 and Maryland took only one shot on November 4. •Carolina's defensive unit headed up by Ashlyn Harris, Kristi Eveland, Whitney Engen and Rachel Givan has now allowed only 12 goals over the last 2,710 minutes and two seconds of action dating back to last season's game against Florida State on October 30, 2008.
•Dating back to a 1-0 win over Miami on November 2, 2008 at Fetzer Field, UNC has now posted shutouts in 20 of its last 29 games. The only teams to score against the Tar Heels since then were Texas A&M (once in the 2008 NCAA quarterfinals), Notre Dame (once in the 2008 NCAA championship game), UCLA (twice on August 22), Duke (once on September 24), Boston College (once on October 1), Virginia Tech (once on October 4), Virginia (once on October 17), Florida State (three times on October 22) and Miami (once on October 25).
•Carolina had a 35-match unbeaten streak broken when the Tar Heels fell to Virginia Tech 1-0 on October 4. UNC went 32-0-3 in a span starting with a 4-0 win over Kentucky on September 6, 2008 through a 2-1 win at Boston College on October 1, 2009.
•Carolina has gone 39-4-1 in ACC regular-season matches since a 2-1 loss to Duke at Fetzer Field on October 9, 2005. The losses were to Miami in 2007 and Virginia Tech, Florida State and Miami in 2009 while the tie was with Florida State in 2008.
•UNC started the season 10-0-1 before losing to Virginia Tech. The last time UNC went undefeated through its first 11 games was 2005 when the Tar Heels won their first 13 games in a row before losing at home to Duke.
•At 7-0-1, Carolina completed its non-conference regular-season schedule without a loss for the first time since 2005.
•UNC's win over Boston College 2-1 on October 1 came as the result of a pair of penalty kick goals after the Eagles committed handballs in the penalty area. The last time UNC scored goals on two penalty kicks in the same game came October 16, 2005 when the Tar Heels beat Virginia Tech 3-1 in Blacksburg, Va. with Kacey White and Heather O'Reilly scoring on penalty kicks. Casey Nogueira and Ali Hawkins scored the penalty kicks against Boston College. •Carolina's margin in the 2-1 triumph over Virginia on October 17 was also via a penalty kick after a Virginia defender committed a handball in the penalty area with 1:58 left in regulation. Ali Hawkins converted the penalty kick to give the Tar Heels a 2-1 win. •Carolina has scored in the opening minute of two matches this year. Tobin Heath scored 41 seconds into a 7-2 win over UCLA on August 22 and Courtney Jones scored 23 seconds into a 6-0 win over Notre Dame on September 4.
•Senior defender Kristi Eveland was tapped October 5 as one of 10 finalists for the 2009 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Carolina has now had a finalist for the award in each of its first three years of existence as Jessica Maxwell was so honored in 2007 and Yael Averbuch was so tapped in 2008. Eveland is the only ACC player to make the list of 10 finalists. Fans can vote for Eveland twice each day - once by text and once on the World Wide Web. Text W3 to 74567 or vote at www.seniorclassaward.com.
•The seven goals scored by the Tar Heels against the UCLA on August 22, 2009 were the most UNC has scored in a match since November 10, 2006 when the Tar Heels defeated UNC Asheville 7-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Fetzer Field.
•With the win over UCLA on August 22, UNC won its second straight season opener after having lost two in a row in 2006 and 2007. The Tar Heels are 27-3-1 all-time in season openers with losses in 1983 (road), 2006 (road) and 2007 (home) and a tie in 1985 (home).
•The seven goals scored by UNC against UCLA on August 22 were the most scored in a season opener by the Tar Heels since August 26, 2005 when UNC opened the season with a 7-1 win over Tennessee in Wichita, Kan. They were the most goals scored by the Tar Heels in a home opener since September 6, 2002 when the Tar Heels defeated Guilford 9-0.
•Carolina's five goals against NC State October 9 were the most scored by the Tar Heels against an ACC opponent since October 24, 2008 when the Tar Heels beat Virginia 5-1 in Charlottesville, Va. The five-goal separation against NC State was UNC's largest in an ACC game since the five-goal margin against NC State on October 17, 2008 in a 5-0 UNC win.
•UNC heads into its match with Boston College with a record of 688-36-22 overall, a winning percentage of .938.
•The Tar Heels have outscored their opponents 2,997 to 357 in 746 games since the origin of the program in 1979. That is a scoring margin of 2,640 goals.
•With 121 career points, Casey Nogueira is now 17th in Tar Heel history in career points. Laurie Schwoy (1996-2000) ranks 16th with 122 career points.
•Casey Nogueira has now scored 48 goals in her career. She is 15th in career goals. Stephanie Zeh ranks 14th in career goals with 55.
•UNC's average record per year in its first 30 years of soccer was 22.43 wins per year, 1.1 losses per year and 0.7 ties per year heading into the 2009 campaign.
•UNC is 7-3 in one-goal games in 2009 and 11-2-1 in shutout games in 2009.
•In this week's national polls, UNC is ranked No. 5 by the NSCAA, No. 5 by Soccer Times and No. 4 by Soccer America.
•UNC has won 20 or more matches in a season in 19 of the past 20 seasons. In three of the six non-20 win seasons in Carolina history, UNC still won the NCAA championship. Carolina won NCAA championships in 1982, 1983 and 1988 despite not winning 20 games in those seasons.
•Of the 31 players on the Tar Heel roster in 2009, nine are seniors. This group formed the core of a group which won a national championship in its freshman year in 2006 and then came back to win another national title in 2008.
•Senior forward Casey Nogueira, senior midfielder Tobin Heath and senior defender Whitney Engen were named to the Watch List for the 2009 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy. Nogueira was one of three finalists for the award last year. Heath was a semifinalist for the award in 2008.
•Three Tar Heel women's soccer players were honored this past Friday with their selection to the ESPN The Magazine District 3 All-Academic Team. Congratulations go to senior defenders Kristi Eveland and Whitney Engen and senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris. All three Tar Heels are now eligible for selection to one of the three national ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women's Soccer Teams. •UNC has had 10 selections for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America first, second and third teams in the past four seasons. Those 10 selections came on a total of only 12 nominations for the Academic All-America teams by the UNC Athletic Communications Office during those four years as schools are limited to three nominees per year. Carolina also had seven women's soccer players named Academic All-Americas from 1983-2001, giving the program 17 selections since the Academic All-America program began in 1983.
•Casey Nogueira scored 25 goals in the 2008 season, eight more than she scored in her first two seasons combined as a Tar Heel. The 25 goals equaled the eighth most in a season in Carolina history. The last time a Tar Heel had as many as 25 goals in a season was 2000 when Meredith Florance scored 26.
•Carolina's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Tournament ensured that it played in The Big Dance for the 27th successive year. Only North Carolina and Connecticut had made the NCAA Tournament field in each of the first 26 years of tournament play. However, the Huskies did not make the tournament field last season so Carolina now has the distinction of being the only team to make the NCAA field in all 27 years.
•UNC has an all-time record of 27-6-21 all-time in overtime games in its history. Carolina was 1-0-2 in overtime in 2008 and is 1-1-1 in 2009. UNC's last overtime loss came on October 22, 2009 when Florida State beat the Tar Heels 3-2 in double overtime in Tallahassee, Fla.
•Nineteen current and former UNC players are members of different full and youth U.S. National Soccer Teams in 2009 as part of their player pools.
•Carolina had 12 players compete in the WPS in its first year of existence in 2009. That was the most of any school in the country. Yael Averbuch, '08, Jenni Branam, '02, Heather O'Reilly, '06, and Kacey White, '05, all played for the WPS champion Sky Blue FC. Other Tar Heels in the WPS this past season were Lori Chalupny, '05, Kendall Fletcher, '05, Kristine Lilly, '92, Allie Long, '08, Keri Sanchez, '94, Lindsay Tarpley, '05, Maggie Tomecka, '03, and Cat Whitehill, '03.
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