GoHeels Exclusive: Nothing Was Promised

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

WINSTON-SALEM — She never expected to be watching the clock, waiting for the final seconds to tick down. She never contemplated this season, her last as a North Carolina field hockey player, ending in the same extraordinary fashion as it did a year ago.

But when what she once thought was a once-in-a-lifetime moment came around again, Marissa Creatore envisioned one thing: rushing toward her fellow seniors and embracing them, then the very next teammate to cross her path.

So, when senior goalkeeper Alex Halpin saved a penalty stroke with no time left on the Kentner Stadium clock Sunday, Creatore darted to her. The other seniors followed. And eventually, they disappeared into a mosh pit inside the penalty circle.

Once Creatore reemerged, though, she was in the arms of sophomore Hannah Griggs, celebrating just as she had intended – and how a two-time undefeated national champion should.

Creatore might not have initially thought she and her remaining teammates from the 2018 squad would earn such a designation. But with a 6-1 win over Princeton, they did exactly that, claiming the program's eighth national title and completing a second straight undefeated campaign.

"Nothing was ever promised," Creatore said. "We never knew we were going to be this good or that we were going to go undefeated. And I think that's the most incredible part."

Her teammates and coaches agree.

Between the hugs and cheers and tears after their 2-0 win over Maryland in last year's national championship game, chants of "repeat" broke out at Louisville's Trager Stadium. Some players might have felt as if that was possible back then. But Karen Shelton wasn't sure.

The coach knew UNC had significant holes to fill with the departures of six seniors to graduation. None was bigger than the one left by Ashley Hoffman, the Honda Sport Award winner as the nation's top player as well as the MVP for both the NCAA and ACC tournaments.

Losing Hoffman, as well as starters Malin Evert, Morgan Goetz and Eva van't Hoog, left Shelton uncertain of what this team could do. The season-ending injury that Cassie Sumfest, Carolina's lone returning starter on the back line, sustained in the spring later led Shelton to call this season a rebuild. Around that same time, her players started realizing the daunting task ahead of them.

"We knew we'd be returning a lot of talent," Creatore said. "But once spring (practice) started, I think it was kind of a slap in the face for us, leadership-wise especially; we had lost a lot of the backbone of our leadership. The spring knocked us back in our place and made us realize we're going to have to work for it just as hard, if not harder, than we did the year before."

That became further accentuated once preseason practices started.

It might not have counted against their record, but the Tar Heels did lose a game over the last 738 days, dropping a scrimmage to Liberty three days into the preseason. Shelton described that as a bit of a "whoa" moment. But senior Catherine Hayden said she and her teammates brushed it off.

The same couldn't be said of UNC's first three games. In their first two, the Tar Heels fell behind Michigan and Iowa 1-0 before storming back. Then came the homefield opener, a matchup with then-No. 5 Princeton, which led 3-1 with just over five minutes to play. More so than at any game before or after, Carolina's winning streak was in jeopardy. That, however, didn't matter. The Tar Heels scored three unanswered goals in the final 5:01, maintaining their unblemished record at Karen Shelton Stadium.

In many ways, that win humbled them, Creatore said. But it also gave them confidence.

"I do think that Princeton game was a turning point for our team. …" said Shelton, whose total of eight NCAA titles ranks second among all Division I coaches. "I think at that point we realized that we could score in bunches and that we were not quitters. We're fighters and winners."

As UNC navigated the first few weeks of the season, the Tar Heels attempted to come up with a team motto. Instead of reusing the 2018 team's "With Each Other, For Each Other" motto, Hayden said she and her teammates wanted to devise a new one specific to this year's team. It took some time, but they eventually settled on one: "Believe It, Do It, Earn It."

They certainly did.

One might think, just by looking at their record and stats, that the Tar Heels rolled through the rest of their opponents with little difficulty. But they faced adversity all season. Twice more they fell behind 1-0 during the regular season, only to battle back. They also played one game without standout senior Yentl Leemans and three without sophomore sensation Erin Matson – one of which included a double-overtime win over Saint Joseph's.

Those four wins, perhaps as much as any, showed this team was a sum of its parts and not just built around a few players. They had to grow exponentially to get there. And that's a credit to Shelton as well as Grant Fulton, Jackie Briggs, Robbert Schenk and Chris Fry – who make up what Shelton believes is the best coaching staff she's had in her 39 seasons at Carolina.

Still, as much as they developed, the players were never satisfied. So many times throughout the season, Creatore said, they returned to the locker room after a win and spent as much, if not more, time telling each other what they could've done better than what they did right. That was even the case after they beat Boston College for the ACC Tournament title.

It wasn't until then, Hayden said, that the idea of going undefeated crossed her mind. And that was only because that's the only way Carolina could win the national championship.

"It's done one game at a time," Shelton said. "We don't really think about the streak. I think it provides motivation for our opponents, but we've faced that before. Every team wants to beat us. We'd rather be the hunted."

Iowa and Boston College challenged the Tar Heels in the NCAA quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. Both seized 1-0 leads, and the Eagles even extended theirs to 2-1. But UNC came away with a 2-1 victory over the Hawkeyes and 6-3 dismantling of Boston College.

That set up Sunday's rematch with Princeton.

Shelton always preaches there are no "supposed-to's," especially in the final four, and Creatore reminded her teammates of that in the hours before the championship game. They knew they'd have to earn the win. Of course they would. And of course, they went down 1-0.

But the Tar Heels didn't fret. They'd been there before, seven times to be exact.

"Someone said the biggest mistake a team could make against us is scoring on us first," senior Megan DuVernois said, "because once that happens, you're like, 'OK, we're winning this. It doesn't even matter.'"

After Friday's game, Boston College coach Kelly Doton praised Carolina for its ever-present "culture of belief," its ability to find a way to win no matter the score or the opponent. Some players credited Shelton for that. Others cited the bond among all the players.

Wherever it comes from, it was palpable Sunday.

With 39 seconds left in the first quarter, Creatore tied the game at 1. Junior Eva Smolenaars then gave UNC its first lead in the 22nd minute. The Tar Heels took that 2-1 lead into halftime, knowing the Tigers could easily come back. But Matson scored the first of back-to-back goals just over three minutes into the third quarter, and suddenly, the route was on.

By the time Smolenaars and Griggs added insurance goals in the fourth quarter, the pro-Carolina crowd was well on the verge of hysteria.

"In the middle of the game, everyone just stopped and looked at the stands and the sea of Carolina blue was something that was really special," said Matson, the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player with nine goals in UNCs four games. "Those little things today made a difference."

Making things even more festive, the lead gave UNC the opportunity to spread around the playing time.

Halpin and sophomore Megan Ragusa each took turns in goal for junior Amanda Hendry, whose two crucial first-quarter saves had become an afterthought by then. Seniors Ellen Payne and Ali Rushton also played and were on the field when Halpin blocked the final penalty stroke and the postgame celebration commenced.

As championship t-shirts and hats were distributed and players posed for photos with friends and family, the frustrations that defined the majority of this decade for UNC couldn't have felt more distant.

Between the Tar Heels' 2009 and 2018 national championships, they reached the final four every year, only to fall short. No defeat hurt more than their penalty-shootout loss against Connecticut in the NCAA semifinals on Nov. 17, 2017. For some players, that date will always be associated with unpleasant memories. But how they've responded since then is unquestionably one of the most impressive accomplishments in the history of Carolina Athletics.

"After the 2017 season, when we said we were never going to lose another game, we didn't mean over the next two years," Hayden said. "That was kind of just about the year after."

Every player who has entered the program since then, though, has heard about what happened. And that motives them, as well.

"I didn't get to experience that heartbreak and sadness that they did, but I think that allows me to vicariously live through them and want to do it even more for them. …" Matson said. "The girls talk about it all the time, like, 'We never want to feel like that again.' Luckily, the past two years, we haven't. We're going to try to keep that going."

They'll have to do so without the help of eight seniors – Creatore, DuVernois, Feline Guenther, Halpin, Hayden, Leemans, Payne and Rushton. Over the last four years, UNC is 84-11, with three ACC Tournament trophies in addition to their two national titles.

All eight will be difficult to replace for different reasons. But Creatore and Hayden, both of whom arrived at Carolina as unheralded recruits and emerged as consistent playmakers and dynamic leaders, will be especially missed for the examples they set.

"It's just thrilling to have kids like that," Shelton said.

As for what they've achieved, helping the Tar Heels join Old Dominion as the only schools to win back-to-back national championships with undefeated seasons, Creatore said she's unsure exactly when she'll realize the magnitude of it.

"It's not normal to be a part of a program that comes to 11 straight final fours, let alone wins two back-to-back undefeated national championships," said the former East Chapel Hill High School star. "That is just unheard of in real life. I think once I move on and realize that this accolade is going to be something I carry with me forever and it's probably going to be the thing I'll be most prideful of when I go into the real word, that is just going to feel amazing."

As if it already doesn't, especially considering what it took.

"I said last year was the best day of my life," Hayden said, standing on the Kentner Stadium field afterward. "But the new best day of my life is today."

Players Mentioned

Marissa Creatore

Megan DuVernois

Malin Evert

Morgan Goetz

Hannah Griggs

Feline Guenther

Alex Halpin

Catherine Hayden

Amanda Hendry

Ashley Hoffman

Yentl Leemans

Erin Matson

Ellen Payne

Megan Ragusa

Ali Rushton

Eva Smolenaars

Cassie Sumfest

Eva van't Hoog

Related Videos