GoHeels Exclusive: Winning Championships Part 1

Brianna Pinto
University of North Carolina Women's Soccer v Florida State
Dorrance Field
Chapel Hill, NC
Thursday, October 24, 2019

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

October 28, 2019 | Women's Soccer, Featured Writers

Tar Heels clinch first title of 2019 campaign

By: Dave Lohse

By Dave Lohse
Associate Athletic Communications Director

What a weekend it was for women's soccer in the state of North Carolina. Not only did our own beloved women's soccer team claim its 23^rd Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title in school history but a North Carolina Courage team decidedly tinged with a Carolina Blue roster hue also seized its second successive National Women's Soccer League crown.

Let's start with the excitement the Tar Heel side brought to Dorrance Field this weekend. Carolina entered the weekend with a one-point lead over defending national champion Florida State in the league standings. While playing at home both Thursday and Sunday, and that was certainly an advantage, the Tar Heels were facing one of their most difficult weekends of the campaign with matches against the Seminoles, No. 3 in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index, and Virginia Tech, No. 10 in the NCAA RPI. Neither opponent was going to be an easy takedown.

It was certainly an exhilarating 90 minutes against the Seminoles at Dorrance Field last Thursday night. The history of this series has been so tight it boggles the mind. For Carolina and its fandom certainly this was not just another game. For starters, the Seminoles own more victories over the Tar Heels than any other collegiate team with 10. While Carolina had won three regular-season meetings in a row against the Seminoles, FSU had prevailed 3-2 in last year's ACC Tournament championship game and 1-0 in last season's NCAA Tournament championship game. The 14 most recent meetings between the two teams, starting with the 2011 ACC Tournament quarterfinal game in Chapel Hill, had resulted in 12 one-goal margins of victory and a pair of ties. And in those 14 games Florida State held an 8-4-2 series edge against the Tar Heels. Prior to the 2011 ACC Tournament meeting the Tar Heels had dominated the series to the tune of 24-2-2. So clearly there had been a reversal of fortune in recent years in the series.

So Carolina's 29^th victory in the series last Thursday was a big deal. It extended Carolina's winning streak in the regular season phase of the series to four games in a row and it helped set up the Tar Heels' chances to secure one of the No. 1 seeds in next month's NCAA Tournament. The match was as intense as one would expect and the crowd of over 3,000 fans was definitely into it. In the first half, Carolina's Brianna Pinto found the cross bar and Maycee Bell followed just a few minutes later with a header off the right post. Those frustrations found the Tar Heels still deadlocked at 0-0 as the game went to intermission despite the fact Carolina appeared to be the better team in the opening 45 minutes.

Pinto again found the right post just minutes into the second half as things stayed even and as the second half progressed Florida State began to improve its run of play, feasting off its vaunted possession game. But the Tar Heel defense held strong and UNC eventually got the goals it needed for a 2-0 win on spectacular individual efforts by senior Ru Mucherera and sophomore Brianna Pinto. Both players scored on breakaways with Mucherera being sprung free by a long pass over the top of the FSU defense by Lotte Wubben-Moy and Pinto intercepting a pass in the midfield, taking off on a 45-yard sprint and finishing with precision.

Sunday's game against Virginia Tech would offer the Tar Heels the chance to clinch the ACC regular season championship with a game to spare in the conference schedule. Certainly it was a challenge for the Tar Heels to be as up emotionally as they were against the Seminoles. Virginia Tech is also a team that always plays Carolina tough. The Hokies scout well and they thrive on set pieces. Although they had not defeated Carolina since 2011 they have a knack to make things hard on the Tar Heels. Still, Carolina found the openings necessary to gain a 2-0 win and with it the 23^rd ACC regular season championship in school history, its second in a row and its fourth of the decade of the 2010s. Celebrating her Senior Day with five other fourth-year teammates, senior forward Zoe Redei struck for the game-winning goal on a World Class strike late in the first half shortly after coming off the bench. Redei has had the knack for big goals in her career. She has 11 career goals. Six have been game-winning tallies.

Within minutes of Carolina wrapping up its win over Virginia Tech, 30 minutes down the road in Cary, N.C., the North Carolina Courage was finishing off its 4-0 victory over the Chicago Red Stars. UNC is represented on the Courage roster by starters Jessica McDonald, Crystal Dunn and Heather O'Reilly and reserve goalie Samantha Leshnak. Former Tar Heel assistant coach Bill Palladino serves as an assistant with the Courage. McDonald and Dunn scored goals in the championship game win and O'Reilly finished off her long and distinguished soccer playing career as the starting left back, going out with back-to-back NWSL titles on her resume.

What a weekend it truly was for soccer in the Tar Heel State. And we are just getting started with the ACC Tournament commencing on November 3 and the NCAA Tournament on November 16. More good times are ahead.