University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 1 Tar Heels To Face Coastal Carolina Sunday
November 18, 2011 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 18, 2011
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Top seeded North Carolina will open the 2011 NCAA Tournament on Sunday when the Tar Heels face Coastal Carolina in the second round at 5 p.m. at Fetzer Field. The Tar Heels will be in search of a fourth straight trip to the NCAA College Cup after finishing the last three seasons among the final four schools in the country.
The Tar Heels are coming off an impressive showing in the ACC Tournament as they outscored their opponents 8-1 over three wins to claim the league double after winning the regular season outright for a second straight year. The ACC Championship was the fourth in school history for the Tar Heels as Carolina claimed the tournament crowns in 2011, 2000 and 1987 and earned a share of the title in 1966.
Coastal Carolina rebounded from a Big South Tournament upset at the hands of Liberty to claim a wild, 4-3, win over Elon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Conway, S.C. The Chanticleers own the top scoring offense in the country having scored 64 goals in 21 matches.
The Tar Heels and Chanticleers met during the exhibition season this year and Carolina claimed a 2-0 road win, picking up goals from Carlos McCrary and Billy Schuler.
There have been three meetings in the series history between UNC and CCU with Carolina posting a 2-1-0 record in those contests. The last official meeting between the two schools came in the NCAA Tournament in 2003 when the Chanticleers came in to Chapel Hill and upset the Tar Heels, 3-0.
Carolina has rolled to a 17-2-2 mark this season, the most wins prior to the NCAA Tournament since the 2000 squad won 18 matches prior to postseason action. The Tar Heels have won six straight matches and are unbeaten in 16 of their last 17 appearances.
Leading the way for the Tar Heels has been junior forward Billy Schuler who has found the back of the net a team-high 14 timess, which is tied for the 11th most in a single season in school history.
Not far behind Schuler's production is junior midfielder Enzo Martinez who has distributed a team-best 10 assists on the year, while finding the back of the net eight times as well.
Coming on strong at the end of the year is Ben Speas who tallied a pair of goals and added an assist en route to ACC MVP honors a week ago and is just one assist behind Martinez with nine on the year.
The Tar Heel defense has been just as impressive as the offense this year having posted nine shutouts allowing two goals on just two occasions. Carolina's 0.65 goals against average ranks 11th in the country and the Tar Heels have been even more dominant lately, allowing just two goals in the last 604 minutes of action, a GAA of 0.30 during the span.
The NCAA appearance will be the 19th for the Tar Heels and 12th in the last 13 years. Carolina is 24-16-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and Sunday will be the 15th NCAA Second Round game in school history for UNC which is 6-7-1 in those contests.
Carolina is 11-6-1 in its opening match of the NCAA Tournament and are unbeaten in their last three, including a shootout win over Georgetown a year ago. The Tar Heels became the first team in NCAA history to advance three consecutive times on penalty kicks as they converted all 14 penalties against Georgetown, Michigan State and SMU to advance to the College Cup.
