University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Radford
Tar Heels Celebrate Senior Day
October 31, 2010 | Field Hockey
Oct. 31, 2010
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The second-ranked North Carolina field hockey team had much to celebrate Sunday on a sunny afternoon at Francis E. Henry Stadium. Prior to the game, the final one of the regular season, the program honored four seniors who have been successful on and off the field during their UNC careers. And after the game, a 5-0 win over Radford, it was time for the team to cheer its head coach, Karen Shelton, who earned her 500th career win at Carolina.
With the win, the Tar Heels' 10th shutout of the fall, Carolina wraps up the regular season at 18-1. Next up is the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, which begins Thursday in Winston-Salem, N.C. As the No. 2 seed in the field with an ACC mark of 4-1, UNC will receive a first-round bye and open play on Friday.
Seniors Elizabeth Drazdowski (Mountain Top, Pa.), Jackie Kintzer (Robesonia, Pa.), Louise McNutt (Austin, Texas) and Jen Slocum (Carlisle, Pa.) were honored as part of Senior Day before the game and all were in the starting lineup. At UNC, they've been part of two NCAA Championships and an ACC Championship and have helped the Tar Heels to a 76-9 record over the past four years. Additionally, all four have earned ACC Academic Honor Roll recognition and are currently part of the Carolina Leadership Academy's Veteran Leaders program.
"It's an outstanding leadership group," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "I'm really proud of them. They've had great success. All four of them have grown individually - academic and socially and as athletes. Each player has a distinct role and all of them play their roles so well."
While the Tar Heels ultimately delivered a Senior Day win, it took some time for UNC to pull ahead. Carolina had 22 shots and 10 corners in the first half, but could find the goal just once before halftime. Freshman forward Sinead Loughran came off the bench to score the gamewinner in the 30th minute of play. Junior Elizabeth Stephens sent a hard shot to the left of the cage and Loughran deflected it up and just inside the post to put UNC up 1-0 at halftime.
"It was one of those games that was a tale of two halves," Shelton said. "We felt like we played very lackluster in the first half. We were missing a lot of opportunities. We went in at halftime and talked about some things and started to move the ball better in the second half."
Just over 10 minutes into the second half, UNC scored two goals in less than a minute to expand its lead. In the 46th minute, Stephens got a ball from sophomore Kelsey Kolojejchick on the run and rolled a shot just under a diving Jennifer Wisniewski, who finished the game with 18 saves for the Highlanders. The goal was the fourth of the season for Stephens, a forward from St. Louis. Fifty seconds later, sophomore Caitlin Van Sickle grabbed a ball in traffic right in front of the cage and sent it in to put UNC up 3-0 with her 10th score of the year.
In the 59th minute, the Tar Heels scored on a penalty corner for the only time all day. Freshman Marta Malmberg beat Wisniewski with her shot, assisted by Katie Ardrey and Teryn Brill.
The final goal of the day came, fittingly, from one of the Tar Heel seniors. The Radford goalkeeper came out to block a scoring attempt by UNC's Slocum. Trailing on the play, McNutt grabbed the rebound after Wisniewski's save and sent it into the empty cage for her first goal of the year.
In addition to the 18 saves by Wisniewski, Radford got three defensive saves to total 21 stops on the day. Kintzer had one save before she was pulled at the 4:18 mark for junior Christine Coppola, who saw her first action for the Tar Heels after joining the team this fall.
The Tar Heels finished the game with a season-high 38 shots. Afterward, Shelton, who took over as head coach in 1981 and has led the program to six NCAA titles, wanted to talk about anything but her milestone.
"My feeling is that it's my biggest nightmare to have anything like that deflect attention from the seniors," Shelton said. "I've been here a long time, and I'm so incredibly proud the be the head coach at the University of North Carolina."
Not to mention ready to focus on victory 501.
No. 2 North Carolina 5, Radford 0
Scoring:
UNC - Sinead Loughran (Elizabeth Stephens), 29:33; UNC - Stephens (Kelsey Kolojejchick), 45:21; UNC - Caitlin Van Sickle, 46:11; UNC - Marta Malmberg (Katie Ardrey, Teryn Brill), 58:18; UNC - Louise McNutt, 67:34Shots: UNC 38 (22/16); RU 2 (0/2)
Penalty corners: UNC 14 (10/4); RU 1 (0/1)
Goalkeeper saves: UNC 1 (Jackie Kintzer, 0 GA, 1 S, 65:42; Christine Coppola, 0 GA, 0 S, 4:18); RU 18 (Jennifer Wisniewski, 5 GA, 70:00)
Defensive saves: RU - Megan Lenhardt 1; Jennifer Balka 1; Becca Devlin 1
Records: UNC 18-1 (4-1 ACC), Radford 8-10 (2-4 Nor Pac)
UNC starters: Jackie Kintzer, Teryn Brill, Taryn Gjurich, Katie Ardrey, Elizabeth Stephens, Elizabeth Drazdowski, Caitlin Van Sickle, Meghan Dawson, Marta Malmberg, Jen Slocum, Louise McNutt
UNC substitutes: Meghan Drake, Rachel Magerman, Katie Shanahan, Katie Plyler, Kelsey Kolojejchick, Emily Kole, Meghan Lyons, Sinead Loughran, Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany, Christine Coppola
