University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 3 UNC Hosts No. 2 Indiana Sunday In Cary
August 25, 2018 | Men's Soccer
Admission is free at all UNC regular season home matches at WakeMed Soccer Park during the 2018 season. Fans can also watch the game live on ACC Network Extra. The first 500 fans will receive a free 2018 men's soccer t-shirt and a buy one, get one free coupon from Jersey Mikes.
Carolina Faces Indiana In Top 3 Matchup
• The Tar Heels are 4-4 all-time against Indiana.
• The last time UNC and Indiana faced each other was in 2017, when the Hoosiers beat Carolina 1-0 to advance to the NCAA National Championship.
• This will be the 3rd regular season meetings between the two programs. The other six have come in the postseason where they are 3-3.
DECADE OF DOMINANCE
• Over the last 10 seasons (2008-2017), UNC leads all other programs in the following:
- NCAA Championship wins: 23
- Sweet 16 Appearances: 9
- Elite 8 Appearances: 8
- Men's College Cup Appearances: 6
46 Weeks And Counting
• Since the start of the 2015 season, the Tar Heels have been ranked in the top 10 in the NSCAA/United Soccer Coaches poll for 46 consecutive weeks.
MAC Hermann Watch List
• Alex Comsia was named to the Mac Hermann Trophy Preseason Watch List after helping lead the Tar Heels to back-to-back College Cups.
• Comsia led the team in minutes played (1977) last year while starting all 22 games for UNC.
Pieters Header Lifts Tar Heels Over ETSU
• Jelani Pieters 79th minute goal lifted the Tar Heels over ETSU in the season opener on Friday, August 24.
• The goal was Pieters 5th game-winning goal of his career after tying for the team lead with 4 last season.
Winning Ways In Season Openers
• The Tar Heels are now 10-1 in their last 11 season openers, with the only loss coming to Akron (eventual national champions) in 2010.
U.S. soccer college program champions
• North Carolina claimed the inaugural U.S. Soccer Spring College Program championship with after going undefeated in five games.
• Carolina went 5-0 on the spring season and outscored its opponents 13-2.
North Carolina Spring Results:
UNC 4, Clemson 1
UNC 4, Georgetown 0
UNC 2, Virginia 1
UNC 2, Wake Forest 0
UNC 1, Duke 0
Second Half Team
• In 2017, Carolina outscored its opponents 31-9 in the second half, including 6-2 in the postseason.
Veteran Core
• The Tar Heels return 8 players from last years NCAA College Cup team that played at least 1,000 minutes, including Alex Comsia, Mauricio Pineda and John Nelson who all finished top 3 in minutes played last year.
Healthy and ready to go
• Carolina gets two big pieces back for the 2018 season in Nils Bruening and Drew Murphy
• Nils missed all of last season due to injury but in 2016 he finished second on the team in points (17) and led the team in goals with 8.
• Murphy has dealt with injuries over the last two season in Chapel Hill, but when heatlhy has provided key moments for the Tar Heels. In 2016 his game-winning goal against Providence sent the Tar Heels to the NCAA College Cup.
Perfect preseason
• Carolina went 3-0 in preseason exhibition games defeating Coastal Carolina 4-0, Stetson 4-1 and Presbyterian 2-1.
• Since the start of the start of the spring season, Carolina is now 8-0 and has outscored its opponents 23-4.
2018 ACC Title favorite
• For the second consecutive year, the Tar Heels are favored to claim the 2018 ACC title, claiming 10 of the possible 12 votes from the leagues head coaches.
• Carolina is also favored to claim its fourth consecutive Coastal Division title.
Top 5.....AGAIN
• Carolina has been tabbed one of the top 5 teams in the country in the preseason polls 9 of the last 10 seasons. The only year they weren't, TopDrawerSoccer voted them preseason No. 6 in 2014.
• So far this season, the Tar Heels are No. 2 in Soccer American, No. 3 in United Soccer Coaches and College Soccer News and No. 4 in TopDrawerSoccer.
