North Carolina
Virginia
Tar Heels Advance To ACC Title Game
November 2, 2007 | Field Hockey
Nov. 2, 2007
NEWTON, Mass. - The North Carolina field hockey team will play for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on Sunday after beating No. 19 Virginia 3-0 Friday afternoon in an ACC semifinal game at Newton Campus Turf Field. The top-ranked Tar Heels improved to 19-0 on the season and collected their 13th shutout of the year.
"It's always good to get a game like this under our belt in tournament play," North Carolina coach Karen Shelton said. "We're just delighted to be in the championship game."
Sunday at 1 p.m., UNC will meet third-seeded Wake Forest, a winner over No. 2 Maryland in Friday's second semifinal. The title matchup will be televised live on the Regional Sports Networks (Fox Sports Net South, Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic and New England Sports Network).
Against Virginia, freshman Katelyn Falgowski scored the gamewinner 15:12 into the match when she took a pass from senior Laree Beans and shot it past Cavalier goalkeeper Amy Desjadon. Beans got a goal of her own just after halftime when she deflected a ball from senior Jesse Gey into the goal 1:25 into the second half. Sophomore Danielle Forword had the final goal, a reverse stick following a rebound on a penalty corner with 10 minutes to play in the game.
The Tar Heels finished the game with 26 shots - 19 of them in the second half - to Virginia's four. UNC goalkeeper Brianna O'Donnell made a save in Virginia's only shot on goal. UVa's Desjadon had 16 saves.
Carolina beat the Cavaliers by the same 3-0 score when the teams met in Charlottesville, Va., on Oct. 14. "It wasn't a deja vu game even though the score was the same as when we played during the season," Shelton said. "I thought UVA gave us a much better game this time around and put a lot of pressure on us.
"Brianna had a great warmup and when we needed her she was there. I thought we moved the ball well at times, particularly in the second half. I was happy to see Dani get a big goal, Katelyn had the first one, which huge, and Laree had a big-time goal. I'm proud of the whole team for advancing and earning another game."
The Tar Heels will play for the program's 16th ACC Championship, the first since 2004, which was the last time UNC reached the title game.
No. 1 North Carolina 3, No. 19 Virginia 0
Scoring: UNC - Katelyn Falgowski (Laree Beans), 15:12; UNC - Laree Beans (Jesse Gey), 36:25; UNC - Danielle Forword, 60:11
Shots: UNC 26, UVa 4
Penalty corners: UNC 13, UVa 2
Goalkeeper saves: UNC 1 (Brianna O'Donnell 1, Jackie Kintzer), UVa 16 (Amy Desjadon)
Records: UNC 19-0, Virginia 11-9
UNC starters: Brianna O'Donnell, Illse Davids, Riley Foster, Rachel Dawson, Melanie Brill, Britt van Beek, Jesse Gey, Laree Beans, Xan Funk, Danielle Forword, Katelyn Falgowski
UNC substitutes: Alli Tanner, Kiki Norbruis, Heather Kendell, Kate Scholl, Hilary Hartman, Elizabeth Drazdowski, Meghan Dawson, Liz Morris, Jen Slocum, Jackie Kintzer, Casey Burns
