No. 1 North Carolina Tops No. 13 Duke, 5-0

Saturday, September 22

Chapel Hill, N.C.

1:00 PM

North Carolina

Duke

September 22, 2007 | Field Hockey

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Sept. 22, 2007

Final Stats

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - With balanced scoring and rock-solid defense, the North Carolina field hockey team beat visiting Duke 5-0 Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Henry Stadium in the Tar Heels' Atlantic Coast Conference opener. Top-ranked UNC improved to 10-0 (1-0 ACC) on the season with its fifth consecutive shutout, while the No. 13 Blue Devils fell to 4-5 (0-2 ACC).

The win gave UNC a 1-0 lead in this year's Carlyle Cup battle, the annual competition between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils.

"I'm absolutely thrilled with the victory," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "I thought it was a great team effort on a very hot day, and the depth of our bench really came through. It was a total team effort. This team continues to improve daily."

Five different players scored in the game, but it took until the final seconds of the first half for UNC to get on the board. With 24 seconds on the clock, senior Jesse Gey sent a hard shot from the top of the circle past Duke goalkeeper Caitlin Williams, who already had three saves in the period. Gey's goal was her eighth of the season, seven of which have been gamewinners.

Nine minutes after halftime, UNC made the score 2-0. Gey sent a ball in toward the goal, senior Heather Kendell tipped it from the right side and Alli Tanner, another senior, got her stick on it just in front of the goal to send it by Williams. The goal was Tanner's third of the season.

Almost three minutes later, the Tar Heels got another. On a penalty corner, senior Laree Beans tipped in a shot by freshman Katelyn Falgowski from the right of the goal to put UNC up 3-0. It was Beans's fourth goal of the season and gave Falgowski a team-high 14 assists.

With 15:30 remaining in the game, senior Rachel Dawson drove home a direct shot on a penalty corner, assisted by Gey and senior Xan Funk. On the day, UNC had nine penalty corners to three by Duke.

A pair of Chapel Hill products combined for Carolina's final goal, in the 56th minute of play. Funk sent a ball into the circle and Kendell directed it into the cage from the right side for her second goal of the season.

Thirteen different players have scored goals for UNC this season and 10 have two or more. "We don't care who gets the goals as long as we score goals and are able to secure victories," Shelton said. "I think that's a good thing, that we're playing unselfishly. There are no egos on this team. We want to have that team mentality and understand that it's not about any one person or two people or three people or four people, it's about 26 Tar Heels working together to be as good as we can be."

After two consecutive games in which UNC hadn't given up a shot and three in a row in which the other team hadn't had a shot on goal, Duke had six shots and the Tar Heel goalkeepers combined for three saves, one by starter Brianna O'Donnell and two by Jackie Kintzer, who came off the bench to play the final 8:09. Williams made five saves for Duke.

The last team to score against UNC was Villanova on Sept. 8. Since that game, which Carolina won 7-2, the Tar Heels have outscored opponents 30-0.

Carolina returns to action Tuesday with a 7 p.m. game at Davidson. Next Saturday, Sept. 29, the Tar Heels travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., for an ACC battle with Wake Forest.

No. 1 North Carolina 5, No. 13 Duke 0
Scoring: UNC - Jesse Gey, 34:36; UNC - Alli Tanner (Heather Kendell), 44:04; UNC - Laree Beans (Katelyn Falgowski), 46:57; UNC - Rachel Dawson (Gey, Xan Funk); UNC - Kendell (Funk), 55:48
Shots: UNC 20, Duke 6
Penalty corners: UNC 9, Duke 3
Goalkeeper saves: UNC 3 (Brianna O'Donnell 1, Jackie Kintzer 2), Duke 5 (Caitlin Williams)
Records: UNC 10-0 (1-0 ACC), Duke 4-5 (0-2 ACC)