University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Notre Dame
First-Half Goal Flurry Powers No. 1 UNC Past No. 2 Notre Dame
September 4, 2009 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 4, 2009
NOTRE DAME, IND. - OFFICE OF ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (September 4, 2009) Contact: Dave Lohse, 919-641-4128, dlohse@uncaa.unc.edu
First-Half Goal Flurry Powers No. 1 UNC Past No. 2 Notre Dame
Junior forward Jessica McDonald tallies twice as Tar Heels prevail 6-0.
NOTRE DAME, IND. - Sophomore forward Courtney Jones tallied just 23 seconds into the match and the No. 1-ranked North Carolina women's soccer team would go on to score two more goals in the first 20 minutes of play en route to a 6-0 victory over No. 2-ranked Notre Dame before a crowd of over 3,000 in the inaugural game played in Alumni Stadium on the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind. The game was played as part of the 2009 Inn at St. Mary's Soccer Classic. Marquette beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2-0 in Friday's first game.
Five different goal scorers accounted for North Carolina's six tallies with junior forward Jessica McDonald accounting for two of UNC's goals. Single goals for the Tar Heels came from sophomore forward Courtney Jones, junior midfielder Meghan Klingenberg, sophomore forward Brittani Bartok and senior forward Casey Nogueira.
Carolina finished with a 19-15 edge in shots and a 6-3 margin in corner kicks. Both teams used two goalkeepers. Senior Ashlyn Harris started for the Tar Heels and made four saves in 71 minutes of play. Freshman Hannah Daly played the final 19 minutes to combine with Harris on the shutout effort. Kelsey Lysander played the first half for the Fighting Irish and she had four saves and four goals allowed. Nikki Weiss played the second 45 minutes for UND and allowed the final two goals scored by the Heels. Altogether the Fighting Irish made five saves, including one team save.
The final margin was an anomaly in a series that has produced razor-thin margins over the many years of the rivalry. Carolina now leads the all-time series 11-4-2 and has won two in a row against the Fighting Irish after Notre Dame had won the previous two encounters. Since a regular-season meeting in 1999 at Notre Dame, six of the previous seven matches between the two teams had been decided by a single goal and the seventh match had a two-goal separation. Friday's result was the largest margin of victory for either team in the series, exceeding the five-goal margin the Tar Heels had in a 5-0 win over the Fighting Irish in the NCAA championship game on November 20, 1994 in Portland, Ore.
North Carolina improves to 4-0 on the season and its six goals was its second-highest total of the year. UNC's defense, led by Harris and starting defenders Rachel Givan, Whitney Engen and Kristi Eveland, turned in its third straight shutout effort. Notre Dame fell to 2-1 after having produced shutout wins over Wisconsin and Loyola of Chicago in its first two matches, both played at Alumni Field (the long-time previous home of the Fighting Irish).
Just as it had in a 7-2 victory over No. 3 UCLA just 13 days ago at Fetzer Field, the Tar Heels finished their opportunities early to stake themselves to a comfortable advantage. UNC had scored three goals in the first 13 minutes of the aforementioned win over the Bruins. Against the Fighting Irish, UNC scored five goals on its first 13 shots of the game, including four goals on 12 shots in the first half of play alone. Notre Dame actually outshot the Tar Heels 13-7 in the second half but UNC outscored the Irish 2-0 in the second 45 minutes and kept the Irish off the scoreboard.
Just as it had against UCLA, Carolina scored a goal in the first minute of the match and again senior midfielder Tobin Heath had a hand in it. Heath had scored just 41 seconds into the match against the Bruins and then Friday she helped set up Courtney Jones' third goal of the season just 23 seconds into the match. Heath sent a cross from the left side of the box near the end line that Jones converted with a header from five yards out for a 1-0 lead. It took the Tar Heels exactly six minutes to get on the scoreboard a second time as Jessica McDonald scored her second goal of the campaign off an assist by Casey Nogueira. Nogueira intercepted a goalie clearance, dribbled into the penalty area on the left side and then sent a pass into the center of the box where McDonald gathered it in and tapped it deftly into an empty net.
The Tar Heels made it 3-0 at 19:18 of the match as Meghan Klingenberg notched her first goal of the season. Nikki Washington sent a pass from the right side to the far post to Klingenberg who slotted her shot just inside the left post past the diving effort of Lysander. Carolina finished off the scoring in the first half on Brittani Bartok's second goal of the season as she chipped the goalie from just inside the penalty area to make it 4-0 at 36:09 of the match.
Carolina came out of the locker room and scored on its first shot of the second half as Casey Nogueira notched her third goal of the season at 49:02. Nogueira was positioned at the top of the box where she pounced on a failed clearance off the head of a Notre Dame defender and volleyed an accurate strike to the lower right corner of the frame for a 5-0 lead. UNC finished off the scoring at 54:49 on McDonald's second goal of the match. Meghan Klingenberg sent a shot from about 15 yards out that inadvertently hit Courtney Jones en route to the net. The ball bounced directly to McDonald who finished the scoring chance with aplomb to produce the final margin.
Notre Dame peppered the Tar Heel goal with 12 shots in the final 35:11 of the match but the UNC defense blocked four shots and Harris made her fourth save to preserve the clean sheet for the Tar Heels.
Notre Dame had scored at least one goal against UNC in each of the last five meetings between the two teams. Friday's win was the first shutout for the Tar Heels against the Irish since December 5, 1999 when Carolina beat UND 2-0 in that year's NCAA championship game in San Jose, Calif.
It was the first meetings of the teams in South Bend since September 3, 1999 when UNC beat the Fighting Irish 3-2 in double overtime on a goal by Meredith Florance. It was only the seventh time in 17 meetings the game has been played on the home campus of one of the two teams. There have been four meetings in Chapel Hill where Notre Dame is 3-1 against UNC, including two NCAA Tournament wins by the Fighting Irish, and three meetings in South Bend, where the Tar Heels are now 2-0-1.
The Inn at St. Mary's Soccer Classic continues Sunday with two more games. UNC will meet Marquette (3-1) in an 11 a.m. matchup while Notre Dame will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2-1-2) at 1:30 p.m.
