University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Head Into 2002 Season Without Normal Favorite's Status
August 20, 2002 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 20, 2002
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - For only the fifth time in school history the University of North Carolina enters the 2002 season coming off a season-ending loss from the year before. But Coach Anson Dorrance and his Tar Heel team plan to use that loss as the primary motivation to scale the heights and become the best team in the nation once again in the 2002 campaign.
Carolina ran off 24 successive wins to start the 2001 campaign but ended up as the runnerup in the NCAA Tournament following a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to second-ranked Santa Clara. Still, the season was far from a failure. The Tar Heels were 24-1, won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship for the 13th successive season, reached the NCAA championship game and were ranked #1 in the nation in all the final regular-season polls.
But given the fact that UNC has claimed the national championship in 17 of the past 21 seasons, any campaign in which the Heels fail to do so sometimes doesn't seem quite as satisfying. Of course, with the leveling of the playing field in college soccer these days, those thoughts are absurd but Carolina will nevertheless try to use last year's loss as motivation to spur it on to greater heights in 2002.
Dorrance must find a way to replace seven valuable seniors who were a big part of the program. Consensus All-Americas Danielle Borgman, a defender, and Jena Kluegel, a midfielder, both four-year starters, will know longer roam the familiar pitch of Fetzer Field as well as forward Anne Remy and goalkeeper Kristin DePlatchett. All four of those players were on WUSA rosters during the league's 2002 season. Also gone from the Carolina roster are reserves Amy Whittier, Johanna Costa and Katie Simmons.
Carolina does return 17 letter winners as which includes nine players with extensive starting experience. Added to the mix is a nine-member freshman class which was hailed by both Soccer America and Soccer Buzz as the top recruiting class in the nation in 2002. In Soccer America's rankings of the Top 25 high school recruits in 2002, UNC signed the #2, #3, #4, #6 and #10 players on the list.
The Tar Heels will need that kind of infusion of young talent if it is to build the kind of quality depth it needs to make another run at a national championship. But first and foremost, Coach Dorrance will look to his returning starters to provide the leadership necessary to build the team chemistry that eventually leads to success.
Oddly, the 2002 Tar Heel team features the fewest number of seniors ever on a Carolina roster in the 24-year history of the program. But it is certainly a talented trio. And all have had to persevere through multiple injury problems in their college careers to arrive at this point.
Both goalkeeper Jenni Branam and forward Susan Bush have essentially been three-year starters for Carolina, despite their frequent trips to the training room. And defender Leslie Gaston is a steady presence in the flat back three defensive structure at the left back position. She started during her sophomore and junior years after coming off the bench as a freshman.
Branam has started 46 games during her career and has a goals against average of 0.54 while recording 24.5 career shutouts. Bush has scored 15 goals and has 21 assists in her career despite seeing both her 2000 and 2001 seasons end early because of torn anterior cruciate ligaments. The steady Gaston has played in 66 career games on defense and produced nice totals of nine goals and four assists. Both Branam and Bush are pool players on the U.S. National Team roster.
Four starters and some super subs return to anchor Carolina's junior class. The starters include forward Alyssa Ramsey, midfielders Jordan Walker and Maggie Tomecka and defender Catherine Reddick. A two-year starter and member of U.S. Under-21 National Team, Ramsey has a deadly combination of size and speed which makes her one of the nation's top offensive threats. As a sophomore she was named second team All-ACC, third-team All-America and she won Most Valuable Player honors at the 2001 ACC Tournament. She led the ACC in scoring and assists in 2001 while finishing third in goals scored. For her career, she has 30 goals and 34 assists.
Reddick has been the starting central defender on the U.S. National Team for the past two years and is considered one of the future stars of that squad. That's pretty good stuff for a player who started only one game her freshman year at Carolina. Of course that was the national championship game against UCLA and all she did in that contest was score the game-winning goal. Reddick was first-team All-ACC last season as well as a consensus first-team All-America choice.
Less spectacular in their style of play but integral to Carolina's success nevertheless are the two junior starters who patrol the center of the field as starting midfielders. Jordan Walker plays the attacking center midfield role while Maggie Tomecka plays the playmaking center midfield role. Both are two-year starters for the Tar Heels. Walker's tenacity in the midfield makes her a Tar Heel crowd favorite. She started all 15 games for UNC last year and has three goals and 10 assists. Ironically, the last four goals Walker has scored have all been game-winning goals, including three in NCAA Tournament games. At 5-11, Tomecka is the Tar Heels' tallest player. She is a presence on the field and very dangerous on set plays, where she scores most of her goals. Despite playing what is essentially a defensive midfield position, she was the team's sixth-leading scorer last year with eight goals and four assists.
Other members of the junior class include super subs Elizabeth Ball and Carmen Watley in addition to reserve forward Jane Smith. After red-shirting in 2000, Ball, a forward, was probably the team's chief surprise last season. Despite never starting a single game, she ranked in the Top 10 in the ACC in both points and goals scored. She finished with 10 goals, five assists and 25 points. Three of her goals were game winners for UNC. Watley was the first substitute off the bench when the Tar Heels made a defensive change last season. She played in all but one game and had three starts to her credit.
Two starters return in UNC's sophomore class as well as a couple of valuable reserves. The starters are forward Anne Morrell and midfielder Sara Randolph, both of whom were named to the Freshman All-ACC Team and to Soccer Buzz's Freshman All-America Team. Morrell was the fourth leading scorer on the team last season as she scored eight goals and had eight assists. Randolph started 21 of the team's 25 games last season at the right midfield spot and did nothing but improve as the year went along.
Both midfielder Anne Felts and forward Mary McDowell played important backup roles for the Tar Heels last season. McDowell showed marked improvement as the end of the season and Felts showed tenacity and hustle in the midfield, mostly subbing at Tomecka's playmaking midfield spot. Both McDowell and Morrell are currently members of the U.S. Under 21 National Team along with Ramsey.
Other returning letter winners include sophomores Leigh Blomgren at forward, Sophie Gervais at midfield and Laura Winslow at defense. Aly Winget, a red-shirt freshman, who came in with the sophomore class, will compete for the backup position in the goal behind Branam.
The freshman class may prove to be one of the most dynamic ever at Carolina. Four members of the team are currently on the U.S. Under 19 National Team--midfielder Lori Chalupny, defender Amy Steadman, forward Lindsay Tarpley and defender Kendall Fletcher. They were ranked #2, #3, #4 and #6 recruits coming out of the high school ranks last year by Soccer America magazine.
But the class does not end there. It also includes midfielder Kacey White (Soccer America's #10 recruit), goalkeeper Tyler Griffin, forward Brynn Hardman, midfielder Corinne Black and forward Leea Murphy. What Coach Dorrance is especially encouraged by is the fact the Tar Heels were able to recruit such a dynamic class while luring five of its nine recruits from the state of North Carolina. Never has The Tar Heel State produced a single high school class so rich in talent.
Steadman hails from Brevard, Fletcher from Cary, Griffin from Charlotte, Hardman from Raleigh and Black from Candler.
While Carolina may have its smallest senior class ever with only three players, the 27-person roster gives the Tar Heels as much depth as they have had in the program in several years. And that is something Dorrance likes. Carolina's attacking style of play demands that the team's fitness level be at the highest mark, but UNC also operates under the philosophy that a rested reserve may prove more valuable on the field than a tired starter so quality depth is an immeasurable part of the program's success over time.
Dorrance has arranged a schedule which will certainly test the resolve of the Tar Heels in the coming campaign. Carolina will most likely be dubbed the "Road Warriors" as only five of Carolina's 19 regular-season games will be played in the friendly confines of Fetzer Field where UNC has lost only seven games since 1979.
The Tar Heels open the season at the adidas Invite in Lincoln, Neb. against Nebraska and Southern California before returning home to host the Carolina Nike Classic, facing Guilford and Washington.
Carolina will then spend four successive weekends on the road, going to Houston to play Texas A&M and Texas, to Durham to play Marquette and Florida International, to Oregon to play Portland and Oregon and to California to play Stanford and St. Mary's. The final seven games of the season will all be against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents with successive road games at NC State, Clemson and Florida State before finishing up with three of the last four games at home.
