University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Wake Forest
UNC Defense Records Clean Sheet Against Wake Forest
October 14, 2007 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 14, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - OTwo of the nation's best defensive teams met on Fetzer Field Sunday afternoon and the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels controlled the tempo while recording a 1-0 victory over the No. 24 Wake Forest Demon Deacons before a crowd of 2,842. On a sun-drenched and hot October Sunday afternoon, the Tar Heels improved to 11-3 and 5-1 in the ACC, maintaining their lead in the conference standings. The Deacons fell to 7-5-2 and 2-2-1 in the ACC.
The lone goal of the game came off the foot of reserve forward Jaime Gilbert in the 37th minute of play with an assist by Tobin Heath. Heath dribbled past a pair of Demon Deacon defenders and slipped a pass to Gilbert who had gotten behind the Wake defense. Gilbert dribbled into the lower left side of the box one-on-one with Wake goalie Laura Morse and then finished to the far post, slotting her shot into the lower right 90.
The defense of the two teams dominated most of the first half, limiting chances for both squads. Whitney Engen recorded the game's first shot in the 13th minute for Carolina but the attempt flew wide left.
Twice after that Wake had a pair of great scoring opportunities but neither time was able to get off a clean shot on goal. Allie Sadow timed her run perfectly was able to get past UNC goalie Anna Rodenbough but the ball squirted forward toward the goal line and her centering pass was cleared away by the Tar Heel defense. On a second good opportunity, Rodenbough cleared a ball away right at the top of the box in the 24th minute and then collided with Amanda Lebo who went down hard. Lebo had an air cast put on her leg and then taken off the field on a stretcher.
The second shot of the half came from Gilbert at 36:38, resulting in the only goal of the game. Erin Mikula had the final shot of the half but it sailed wide right.
In the second half, Nikki Washington had a couple of excellent chances to extend the lead, both times off crosses from the left corner by Tobin Heath. At 49:39, Washington's header sailed just high on what would have been a spectacular goal had she finished it. At 78:32, Washington received another pass from Heath and had a point blank shot at Morse, but the Deacon goalie smothered it.
Bess Harrington had Wake's first of three shots at 76:31 of the game. At 85:04, Victoria Delbono had a shot at the top right of the box while unmarked but she pushed it wide to the left on the Deacons' final good scoring chance.
Carolina will face a tough week ahead, playing at No. 7 Boston College Thursday at 7 p.m. and at Virginia Tech Sunday at 5 p.m. Those are Carolina's final two road games of the season. Wake hosts Duke Thursday at 7 p.m. and then travels to Clemson next Sunday at 2 p.m.
