Carolina Meets Top-Ranked Virginia Sunday In ACC Championship Game

Sunday, November 10

Cary, N.C.

Noon

North Carolina

Virginia

Alessia Russo scored twice in Friday's ACC Tournament semifinal win.

Photo by: Rebecca Lawson

Carolina Meets Top-Ranked Virginia Sunday In ACC Championship Game

November 9, 2019 | Women's Soccer

ACC Tournament Championship Bullet Points Watch on ESPNU Live Stats Media Guide (pdf)

Game time is 12 noon on ESPNU

By: Dave Lohse

North Carolina will face Virginia Sunday at 12 noon in the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, N.C. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU with Jenn Hildreth handling the play-by-play, Angela Hucles serving as the analyst and Cat Whitehill and Lori Lindsey handling sideline reporting.

Tickets will be on sale at Sahlen's Stadium ticket office on game day. General admission tickets are $10 and students from ACC schools are admitted free by showing their student IDs.

•Virginia is ranked No. 1 in this week's United Soccer Coaches poll with a 16-0-3 record. North Carolina is ranked No. 3 in the poll with an 18-1-1 record. The last time UNC defeated a team ranked No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches poll was November 30, 2012 when it defeated Stanford 1-0 in double overtime in the NCAA Tournament semifinals in San Diego, Calif.
•Virginia is ranked No. 2 this week by Soccer America while the Tar Heels are No. 3 in that poll. UVA is No. 1 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll and Carolina is No. 2.
•The current NCAA RPI has Carolina at No. 2 and Virginia at No. 4.
•Against the NCAA RPI this year, Carolina's only loss came at No. 5 Arkansas 2-0. UNC has a win and a tie against No. 13 Duke. The Tar Heels have wins over No. 3 Florida State, No. 14 Virginia Tech, two wins over No. 21 NC State and wins over No. 22 Washington, No. 26 Louisville, No. 34 Clemson, No. 38 Notre Dame and No. 44 Portland amongst teams in the Top 50.
•Carolina has 16 shutouts in 20 games this season. That equals the number it had last year in 27 games. The last time UNC had more than 16 shutouts in a season was 2009 when the NCAA champion team recorded 19 clean sheets.
•Carolina had six players overall named to the All-ACC Teams and two to the ACC All-Freshman Teams. First-team All-ACC selections were sophomore midfielder Brianna Pinto, junior midfielder Emily Fox and junior forward Alessia Russo. Russo made first-team All-ACC for the third straight year. Fox and Pinto were named first-team All-ACC for the second year in a row. Second-team All-ACC selections were junior defender Lotte Wubben-Moy and freshman defender Maycee Bell. Junior midfielder Taylor Otto made third-team All-ACC. Bell and freshman forward Isabel Cox were named to the All-Freshman Team.
•Maycee Bell was named the 2019 ACC Freshman of the Year. She is the fourth Tar Heel in the last six years to be named ACC Freshman of the Year, joining midfielder Megan Buckingham in 2014, forward Bridgette Andrzejewski in 2016 and forward Alessia Russo in 2017.
•Anson Dorrance was named the ACC Coach of the Year in 2019 for the 12^th time in his career. He has now won the award in back-to-back years.
•UNC leads the all-time series against Virginia 37-4-4. The two teams have not played each other since September 24, 2017 when Carolina came-from-behind to win a 2-1 regular-season meeting in Charlottesville. The last ACC Tournament meeting between the two teams came October 30, 2016 in the quarterfinal round when the Tar Heels won 3-0 at Fetzer Field.
•UNC is 7-2-2 all-time against the Cavaliers in the ACC Tournament. The last time the two teams met in the finals was November 6, 2005 when Carolina won 4-1 in Cary, N.C.
•In the last eight meetings between UNC and Virginia, the Tar Heels are 2-4-2 against the Cavaliers.
•Claudia Dickey leads the NCAA in goals against average at 0.17 and save percentage at .926.
•Carolina has allowed only seven goals this season – 2 each against Washington, Arkansas (UNC's only loss), and Miami. Carolina also allowed a goal to Pitt. UNC came back to win the games against Washington, Miami and Pitt after falling behind. ACC Freshman of the Year Maycee Bell missed the games against Arkansas and Pitt and second-team All-ACC defender Lotte Wubben-Moy missed the game against Washington.
•In UNC's 3-0 ACC Tournament semifinal victory over NC State, Alessia Russo had her fourth brace of the season. She also scored twice against UNLV, Wake Forest and Louisville.