University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Hosts ODU In NCAA Second Round Wednesday
November 13, 2006 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 13, 2006
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Fourteenth-seeded North Carolina will open play in the 2006 NCAA Men's Soccer Championship with a second round match-up against Old Dominion Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Fetzer Field. The Monarchs (13-5-2) advanced past Winthrop on penalty kicks Saturday to face the Tar Heels (11-5-3) for the third consecutive season. Tickets for the game are available at TarHeelBlue.com and will be available for purchase at the gate at $8 for adults and $5 for children. The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to face the winner between No. 3 seed SMU and UC Santa Barbara either Saturday or Sunday. The Mustangs (17-1-4) eliminated Carolina in last year's quarterfinal round.
OLD DOMINION AT #14 North CAROLINA
NOV. 15, 2006, 7 P.M.
FETZER FIELD
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
Setting the Stage: No. 14 national seed North Carolina opens its eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance against Old Dominion at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fetzer Field. The Tar Heels (11-5-3) are making their 15th overall postseason trip.
In The National Rankings: Carolina is ranked No. 10 by Soccer America, and No. 19 in the NSCAA/adidas poll.
Series History: The Tar Heels hold a 5-3-1 all-time series lead against the Monarchs. The teams have split meetings over the last two seasons with each squad winning on its home field.
CAROLINA AT A GLANCE
• One of the deepest teams in recent memory, Carolina has 11 wins on the season, and 11 different Tar Heels have accounted for game-winning goals. Twelve different players have scored goals on the year, and 12 different players have notched assists. Senior forward Ben Hunter leads the team with 13 points, while Hunter and sophomore midfielder Michael Callahan each have a team-best four goals.
• Carolina is making its school record eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance this season. The Tar Heels are one of just eight teams to earn a spot in each postseason tourney since 1999.
• UNC will play its sixth straight NCAA Tournament game at Fetzer Field Wednesday. The Tar Heels are 11-6 in postseason play at home and have played on an opposing team's home field just once since 2000 in NCAA action.
• The Tar Heels picked up their eighth shutout of the season against Wake Forest last time out and have 16 in their last 30 contests dating to last year. Since the start of the 2005 season, Carolina has 23 shutouts in its last 43 games. The Tar Heels have allowed only 32 goals over this stretch and have surrendered multiple goals just seven times since the start of last season.
• Carolina returned 95 percent of its scoring from 2005 (39 of 41 goals). FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty was the lone Tar Heel to score a goal last season not back on the roster in 2006.
• The Tar Heels returned 10 starters from last year's team that went 17-4-3 and reached the ACC Tournament final, as well as the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
• Carolina is 6-2-2 at home this season and is 16-4-3 at Fetzer over the last two seasons. All-time, the Tar Heels are 328-102-26 on their home pitch.
• Senior goalkeeper Justin Hughes recorded his 19th career shutout in the ACC quarterfinals against Wake Forest and has allowed just 21 goals over 28 games since moving into the starting line-up in mid-October 2005.
TAR HEELS' HISTORY AT NCAA TOURNEY TIME
Carolina is making its 15th NCAA championship appearance and it owns a 17-13-0 record in the postseason. The Tar Heels are making their 12th postseason appearance - and eighth consecutive - under head coach Elmar Bolowich, who is 13-10 in NCAA Tournament play. The Tar Heels are 11-6 in all-time NCAA Tournament action at Fetzer Field, and went 2-1 on their home turf in the tourney a year ago. Carolina, which has a 10-6 record in the tournament over the last seven seasons, has made a pair of College Cup appearances (1987, 2001) and captured the 2001 national title.
CAROLINA IN ELITE COMPANY
North Carolina is one of just eight schools to have earned an NCAA bid in each of the last eight seasons. The Tar Heels have participated in the postseason every year since 1999. UNC is one of just eight teams to reach the quarterfinals since 2000.
CONSECUTIVE NCAA TRIPS Team Years Year Started Virginia 26 1981 UCLA 24 1983 Indiana 20 1987 Creighton 15 1992 St. John's 15 1992 SMU 13 1994 Connecticut 9 1998 Carolina 8 1999
CAROLINA-OLD DOMINION SERIES HISTORY
Carolina leads the all-time series with Old Dominion, 5-3-1. The teams have never played in the NCAA Tournament but have met in each of the last two seasons. The Tar Heels posted a 2-1 win over the Monarchs at Fetzer Field in 2005 after suffering a 3-2 loss in Norfolk in 2004. A native of nearby Virginia Beach, UNC senior Corey Ashe has scored a goal in each of these two meetings, including the game-winner in 2005.
SCOUTING THE MONARCHS
ODU is led by senior forward Edson Elcock and his 28 points on 11 goals and six assists. Classmate Zachary Kinney has chipped in eight goals, as this duo has combined for 19 of the Monarchs' 31 scores. Evan Newton has played most of the season in goal and sports a 0.97 goals against average. ODU advanced to Wednesday's second round match on PKs past Winthrop.
LAST TIME OUT: WFU 0, UNC 0
No. 7 seed North Carolina was eliminated from the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Championship by No. 1-ranked and second-seeded Wake Forest on penalty kicks, 5-4, Nov. 1 in quarterfinal action at the Maryland SoccerPlex. After the teams played 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, Demon Deacon freshman Zack Schilawski made the winning PK in the sixth round of kicks.
After Michael Harrington and Ted Odgers connected on the Tar Heels' first two penalty kicks, freshman goalkeeper Brooks Haggerty, who came off the bench for the PKs, stopped Ryan Solle's shot toward the lower right-hander corner of the net. Wake Forest keeper Brian Edwards followed with a stop on Garry Lewis' attempt, and WFU freshman Will Clayton followed with a make to even the slate at two.
Alternating makes by Carolina's Bill Dworsky and Ben Hunter and the Deacs' Austin da Luz and Sam Cronin made the score 4-4 before Edwards stopped Scott Campbell on Carolina's sixth attempt. Schilawski followed with a strike to the lower right corner for the winner.
HISTORIC RUN FOR HUNTER IN 2005
Despite playing just three NCAA Championship games, junior forward Ben Hunter is already tied for second in school history in postseason goals with four. Last season, Hunter became the first Tar Heel with back-to-back multi-goal games in NCAA play and just the second to have two multi-goal games in the same postseason, joining Ryan Kneipper, who did so in the 2001 title run against Towson and Farleigh Dickinson. A year later, Kneipper scored a school-record five goals in a first round win over Winthrop. There have only been seven multi-goal games in Carolina's NCAA history, including three by Kneipper and the two by Hunter.
ALL-ACC HONORS FOR DEFENDERS
Defenders Andre Sherard and Michael Harrington each picked up All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors for the second straight season Oct. 30, as the league announced its annual awards on the eve of its postseason tournament. Sherard was named to the first team, while Harrington garnered second team accolades. Additionally, rookie forward Bill Dworsky was named to the league's all-freshmen team.
Both from Greenville, N.C., Sherard and Harrington are key components of a Carolina defense that has posted eight shutouts and logged a 0.76 goals against average this season. With Sherard in the lineup at his center back position, the Tar Heels have surrendered just 10 goals by the opposition on the season. Harrington has tallied six points on one goal and four assists from his outside back position and has started 18 games.
Dworsky has made 13 starts on the year up front for the Tar Heels and has six points on two goals and two assists. His first career goal was the overtime game-winner against Elon Sept. 26.
ACADEMIC HONORS FOR BOOLE, BEACH
North Carolina senior defender David Boole and senior midfielder Blake Beach were each named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III men's soccer teams, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced Nov. 7. Boole was voted to the district's first team for the second consecutive season, while Beach garnered second-team honors.
With his first-team selection, Boole now moves on to the ballot for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors. Boole is the lone Tar Heel to start all 19 games this season and he has started all 43 games over the last two years. He is part of a UNC defense that has eight shutouts this season and 23 since the start of 2005. Boole has five career assists and owns a 3.52 grade point average in business administration.
Beach earns all-district honors for the first time in his career thanks to a 3.37 GPA in business administration. He has been a key midfielder for the Tar Heels over the last three seasons with 46 career starts and has four career points on a goal and two assists.
BIG FINISH FOR ASHE
Senior Corey Ashe went out with a bang in his final regular season game with two goals in just over three minutes against Boston College Oct. 26. The effort was Ashe's second career multi-goal game and first since Nov. 7, 2004, at Clemson. In two career games against Boston College, Ashe has eight points on three goals and two assists, as well as both game-winning scores. Ashe was named the final ACC Player of the Week Oct. 30.
TWO IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
The Tar Heels, who have scored 26 goals this season, are unbeaten for the second consecutive season when scoring at least twice. Carolina is 6-0-1 with two goals on the board and 3-0-1 when scoring three times. Thanks to a strong defense, UNC is also 5-1-1 when scoring just one goal.
Over the last two seasons, the Tar Heels are 14-0-2 when scoring twice and 7-0-1 when scoring three or more goals.
TAR HEELS FIND OFFENSIVE BALANCE
Carolina has found a great deal of balance on the offensive side of the ball, as 12 different Tar Heels have found the back of the net. UNC last had a dozen goal scorers in 2002. The Tar Heels also have 10 players with five or more points on the year.
DEFENSE HOLDING STRONG
Despite winning just one of its final six regular season games, Carolina has remained strong defensively. The Tar Heels have allowed only three goals by the opposition since the 3-3 tie with High Point Oct. 3. The Tar Heels are responsible for two own goals and allowed just two total goals to top-five opponents Maryland, Wake Forest and Duke.
HEELS BREAK SCORING SLUMP
Carolina has been dominant on the defensive end of the field for much of the season, but has struggled to convert its scoring chances of late. The Tar Heels went 425 minutes without a goal until the Corey Ashe scored against Boston College Oct. 26 and had suffered back-to-back-to-back shutout losses for the first time since 1982.
The Tar Heels have been shut out in three in a row in 1956, 1974, 1978, 1982 and 2006 but came back with at least three goals in the following game in each instance, including this year's win at Boston College.
TAR HEELS AIM TO FINISH
Over its five-match winless streak, controlling the pace of play was not the problem for Carolina. The Tar Heels outshot their opponents 81-33 and posted a 40-12 edge on corners over this stretch. UNC broke out of its slump with three goals in a win at Boston College Oct. 26, but was blanked by then-No. 1 Wake Forest Nov. 1 in the ACC Tournament.
CALLAHAN BACK VERSUS WAKE FOREST
Sophomore midfielder Michael Callahan sat out the Oct. 20 loss at Duke and the Oct. 26 win at Boston College due to mononucleosis but came off the bench to play against Wake Forest Nov. 1. Callahan, who is second on the team with 10 points, shares the lead with four goals.
SHERARD STEADY AS EVER
Junior center back Andre Sherard rarely posts any stats in the box score - he has just one career assist and has taken only one career shot - but is arguably the most consistent player on the UNC roster. He has started 62 of a possible 64 games since 2004. He missed one game last year following a red card, and did not start against High Point this year due to a back injury. But after the Panthers scored three times on just five shots, Sherard came on to help hold HPU scoreless the rest of the way as UNC rallied for a tie.
DEPTH A KEY FOR UNC
With several minor injuries hitting the Heels at times this season, Carolina has had all 10 of its returning starters in the starting lineup just twice this season - at Clemson Sept. 15 and against Virginia Sept. 22.
Fortunately, UNC is blessed with a deep and talented roster, and 16 players have seen action in 14 or more games and 10 have tallied five or more points.
Senior defender David Boole is the lone player to start all 19 games.
BACKLINE BACK AT IT
Carolina's veteran backline of David Boole, Michael Harrington, Ted Odgers and Andre Sherard has been as good as ever this season with a 0.76 goals against average through 19 games. The Tar Heels have surrendered just 15 scores on the year thanks in large part to center backs Odgers and Sherard, who have been outstanding against the opposition's top offensive threats.
Boole and Harrington have combined for seven points on a goal and five assists from the outside.
