University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Duke
Women's Soccer Faces Duke Friday in Match of Unbeatens
September 16, 2021 | Women's Soccer
No. 2 Tar Heels and No. 4 Blue Devils Play at 7 P.M. at Dorrance Field
• Carolina opens a four-game home stand against ACC competition when the second-ranked Tar Heels host the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils on Friday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m.
• The game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra with Matt Krause and Megan O'Keefe on the call.
• Carolina has finished first or tied for first in the ACC regular season standings 24 times in 34 seasons (22 times outright and twice shared).
Regular-Season ACC Champions
(includes outright and shared)
North Carolina 24
Florida State 4
Duke 3
Clemson 2
Virginia 2
Boston College 1
NC State 1
Notre Dame 1
• UNC was 8-0-2 in league play in 2017, 10-0 in 2018, 9-0-1 in 2019 and 8-0 in 2020. The Tar Heels are 38-0-3 in their last 41 ACC regular-season matches. Their last ACC loss came against Notre Dame on 10/14/16.
• The Tar Heels are 226-26-12 all-time in ACC regular-season matches. The Tar Heels earned their 200th ACC regular season victory on 9/14/18 when they won at Florida State, 1-0.
• UNC has averaged just 0.79 ACC regular-season losses a year in 34 seasons of league play.
• The Tar Heels are coming off a 7-1 win at Florida on 9/9. UNC traveled from Gainesville to Orlando to play UCF on 9/12, but the game was halted 13 minutes in due to stormy weather and canceled after a nearly 90-minute delay. Freshman Emily Murphy had given the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead three minutes into the match after a cross from Abby Allen, but the goal and match were wiped out because of the inclement weather and is not scheduled to be made up.
• Carolina is 7-0-0, the third consecutive season the Tar Heels have opened with at least seven wins. Last year, UNC won its first dozen games before a 3-2 loss to Florida State in the ACC Tournament championship game in November. UNC then won its first seven games in the spring before a loss to Santa Clara in the semifinals of the College Cup.
• Carolina is ranked second in the country in the Sept. 14 United Soccer Coaches poll. This is the fourth poll of the season and UNC has been No. 2 behind Florida State in all four weekly rankings.
• The Blue Devils are the fourth ranked opponent for Carolina in the first eight games.
• UNC is one of four ACC teams in the top 10 and five ACC teams in the top 20 (FSU 1, UNC 2, Duke 4, Virginia 7, Pittsburgh 19).
• The Tar Heels will play Duke without their leading scorer Emily Murphy. The freshman from Windsor, England, injured an ankle in practice this week. The UNC sports medicine staff continues to evaluate her injury. There is no timetable for her return.
• "Obviously we are very disappointed for Emily and our team," says head coach Anson Dorrance. "She is a tremendous player, who has a dynamic personality and brings a creative flair to the game. We hope to get her back as soon as possible, but we don't know yet when that will be."
• Murphy is one of five players who were expected to play significant roles this season who are currently out with injuries. Freshman forward Ally Sentnor is out for the season, junior defender Julia Dorsey has yet to play, freshman defender Emerson Elgin has played in two games and sophomore Talia Dellaperuta has appeared in one contest.
• Carolina scored a season-high seven goals and yielded only an own goal in a 7-1 win at Florida. Emily Colton scored twice and Avery Patterson, Emily Murphy, Rachel Jones and Rachael Dorwart also scored.
• The Tar Heels outshot the Gators, 21-1, and had a 13-1 advantage on corners.
• Carolina is 3-0 on the road this season and has won 13 straight away games since a scoreless tie at Duke on 10/10/19.
• UNC is 4-0 at Dorrance Field this season and 392-28-15 all-time at all home venues.
• The Tar Heels have out-scored its opponents, 9-2, in the four home matches this season.
• Three Tar Heels ‑ freshmen Emily Murphy and Emily Colton and senior Rachael Dorwart – share the team lead with four goals. They are among the seven players with multiple goals this season.
• Carolina's seven-goal output in Gainesville was its highest goal-scoring game since blanking Tennessee, 7-0, in Knoxville on 3/27/21.
• Carolina beat Stanford, 2-1, in overtime in front of nearly 3,000 fans on 9/5. The Tar Heels earned a corner six minutes into overtime, which caromed off several players before Maycee Bell knocked the ball over the end line for the game-winner.
• UNC is 2-0 in overtime this season with a 1-0 win over Arkansas and the 2-1 win over Stanford. The Tar Heels didn't go to extra time in any of their 20 matches last season.
• The Tar Heels have defeated three ranked teams (No. 19 Washington, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 10 Stanford).
• Anson Dorrance has won 896 games as Carolina women's soccer's head coach. He needs four wins for 900.
All-Time Division I Women's Soccer Coaching Wins
Coach School Years Wins
Anson Dorrance North Carolina 1979-active 896
Len Tsantiris Connecticut 1981-2018 570
Becky Burleigh Berry, Florida 1989-2021 513
Jerry Smith Santa Clara 1987-active 511
Gabe Mejail Merrimack 1979-active 495
SERIES vs. DUKE
• The Tar Heels lead, 42-3-3, including 5-0-2 in the last seven matches.
• Last season, Carolina beat the Blue Devils, 2-0, in Durham, and 1-0 in Chapel Hill. Two of Carolina's three goals were own goals by the Duke defense. In the home win, a Blue Devil redirected a cross from Rachel Jones into the net for the only score of the match; in Durham, Brianna Pinto's shot was knocked into the net by the goalie foe the first goal and Izzy Brown scored the second for UNC.
• The Tar Heel are 18-3-1 against Duke in Chapel Hill.
NOTEBOOK
• The Tar Heels have reached the College Cup in each of the last three seasons, including the national championship game in 2018 and 2019. No other program has accomplished that in the last three seasons.
• Carolina outscored its opponents, 34-10, in the last three NCAA Tournaments.
• Nine Tar Heels have scored goals in the first seven games.
• UNC is 15th in the country in assists per game, 16th in corner kicks per game and 21st in goals per game.
• Carolina has trailed in two of the first seven games. Illinois scored first and led for just 1:08; Stanford also scored first and led for 37:56. In both instances, freshman Emily Murphy scored to tie the game for the Tar Heels.
• Three players who played for the Tar Heels last year are playing in the NWSL this season. Emily Fox was selected first overall by Racing Louisville in January's draft. Brianna Pinto, who elected to play for UNC in the spring, was chosen No. 3 by Gotham FC. Taylor Otto was selected No. 11 by Racing Louisville.
• Dorwart has scored in six of the last 10 games dating back to last season's NCAA Tournament.
• The Tar Heels allowed only nine goals last season and had a goals against average of .450, which led the ACC and ranked 10th in the country. Through the first seven games the Tar Heels have allowed four goals and outshot their opponents 127 to 47.
• Including the 2-1 win over Stanford, Carolina is 43-18-40 all-time in overtime games.
• Claudia Dickey has made 17 saves and has three shutouts. In her career, the Charlotte, N.C., native has 24 solo shutouts, made 126 saves, allowed 26 goals and has a save percentage of .829.
• Carolina has played 850 games since the start of the 1986 season, losing by more than one goal just six times. That streak traces back to the opening game of the 1986 season against George Mason, a 3-3 tie.
• Following a 2-0 loss to George Mason in the 1985 NCAA championship game, the Tar Heels went 25 years without losing a game by multiple goals before that streak ended in 2010.
• Since 1986, UNC has only lost six games by more than one goal. Those losses include: 4-1 to Notre Dame on 11/20/10; 2-0 to Virginia on 10/20/13; 2-0 to Virginia on 11/7/14; 3-0 to USC on 9/11/16; 2-0 to Arkansas on 9/15/19; and 3-1 to Santa Clara on 5/13/21.
