University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
2022 Women's Soccer Preview With Anson Dorrance: Part I
July 28, 2022 | Women's Soccer
The start of the 2022 University of North Carolina women's soccer season is just days away. The Tar Heels will open practice on August 2 in advance of their first scrimmage of the season on August 7 against VCU. Coach Anson Dorrance sat down with GoHeels.com to look ahead at the upcoming season in a two-part interview.
GH: Now that you've had time to reflect, how would you assess the 2021 season?
AD: The worst part about last year is we were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and we didn't even make the ACC Tournament. Those were two huge disappointments. It was an incredibly young team relevant to what our competition was doing, bringing in fifth-year and grad students. We had this sort of opposite philosophy. We had some very talented young kids such as Emily Fox, Alessia Russo, and Lotte Wubben-Moy that I thought had a great opportunity to jump onto national teams. I encouraged them to pursue those opportunities before their senior year. When we lost kids of that caliber, we knew it was going to be a challenge, especially considering the teams we were playing against.
The other huge tragedy for last fall, and I think it would've been a completely different fall, is we lost our potentially best player, Ally Sentnor, in the first scrimmage to an ACL injury. So, not having her was a factor, but then also sending all these kids off.
However, upon reflection, there were some good moments for us. Florida State, who won the national championship, we tied 2-2; an outstanding Virginia team that won the conference championship we also tied. We were in the big games, and we beat some traditional rivals. Stanford is always a fantastic rival we beat. The other thing is we ended up in seven overtime games and won four of them. So, when we look back it wasn't all doom and gloom, but we were young.
We were a talented team, but experience makes such a huge difference. It was tough for us to close out games sometimes, but also score goals. We look back on last fall as a learning experience for some of these young kids. Now we're going to be a bit older and a bit more mature with another fabulous recruiting class that's come in. We're going to be a handful.
GH: What will be the style of play this season?
AD: It'll be something that Damon [Nahas] and I have been working on for a while. We want to be the sort of team that plays the perfect combination of the direct and indirect game, but we want to be able to play through the lines when it's there for us. We want to be able to use anything that we could press an advantage to make sure that's incorporated into our game. We're going to have quality players in every line. We're going to have depth in every line and we're going to have experience now in every line which is something we could not say last year.
The other thing, that's the absolute cornerstone and has been a part of who we are from the beginning is we're going to press. We know that most of our opponents don't press, they sit back and have a line of confrontation which is the way some of the best teams in the world play. What we've discovered over time, the cornerstone for all the extraordinary success we've had is built on the press and competing. Pressing has been a trademark of our program and that will certainly continue to be a very critical piece of who we are.
GH: Who are some of the players you're looking to step forward this season?
AD: Except for the goalkeeper position, every line is laden with experienced players. The starting defense returns in its entirety; the starting midfield also returns in its entirety with the prospect of adding players in there.
Maycee Bell is irreplaceable and so right now we must build around her. At her best, Sam Meza is also irreplaceable. Emily Colton scored seven goals for us out of midfield last year and is going to be fabulous coming back after putting up [Brianna] Pinto-like numbers. Avery Patterson has been a warrior for us. We played her at every position in the field last fall and she was probably our best player. Those are the key players that we're going build the team around.
Talia Dellaperuta struggled last fall because of injuries and didn't get on the field much for us. Now she's starting for the U20 national youth team going to a world championship. She might enhance the entire midfield that's returning and maybe even fight her way in as a starter into an already well-established midfield. The front line is where we probably needed the most help. Even though we certainly had some talent, we rarely scored goals in buckets. The frontline needed sort of refurbishing, not we don't have talent coming back on that frontline because we do.
Ally Sentnor has the potential to be a goal per game scorer. Freshman Tori Dellaperuta could be a huge player for us and will compete to start in the nine up top.
We have other kids that also will challenge to start. We have the fastest girl from Minnesota coming in, Maddie Dahlien. We can play her flank midfield in a 1-3-5-2 or we could play her at left wing in a 1-4-3-3. We could certainly also play her in the nine, she's got incredible pace. Tessa Dellarose has been training with Racing Louisville FC of the NWSL and will challenge to start at left back. Sydney Cheesman has the skills to challenge returning starting right back Julia Dorsey for time.
Maci Teater has the skill set to challenge Emily Colton and the other players that we could have playing 10s for minutes in the middle of midfield. Kayleigh Herr is tough as nails, and she'll fight to play in the six. Kate Faasse will fight to get into the playing rotation up top as a striker.
Emily Moxley also has the potential to hold onto her starting position in the 1-3-5-2 at right midfield. She could also certainly step in and play for us at right back. We've got a lot of kids coming back that were starters for us in last year's incoming class. This incoming class will challenge that great recruiting class for playing time and not just for playing time, but also even to make the travel roster.
GH: With the addition of a highly touted recruiting class, how would evaluate this team's depth?
AD: I will boldly make this statement and I think it's absolutely true. This will absolutely be the deepest team we've had in our history, and we've had some very deep and talented teams. We're getting to where we've always wanted to be. We've got an entire collection of kids that are improving each other because of the caliber of the players in practice. It's the old cliche we've used for years about why the competitive cauldron is so effective in developing elite players. Our philosophy is steel sharpens steel, and we have steel in so many positions.
GH: Now that you've had time to reflect, how would you assess the 2021 season?
AD: The worst part about last year is we were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and we didn't even make the ACC Tournament. Those were two huge disappointments. It was an incredibly young team relevant to what our competition was doing, bringing in fifth-year and grad students. We had this sort of opposite philosophy. We had some very talented young kids such as Emily Fox, Alessia Russo, and Lotte Wubben-Moy that I thought had a great opportunity to jump onto national teams. I encouraged them to pursue those opportunities before their senior year. When we lost kids of that caliber, we knew it was going to be a challenge, especially considering the teams we were playing against.
The other huge tragedy for last fall, and I think it would've been a completely different fall, is we lost our potentially best player, Ally Sentnor, in the first scrimmage to an ACL injury. So, not having her was a factor, but then also sending all these kids off.
However, upon reflection, there were some good moments for us. Florida State, who won the national championship, we tied 2-2; an outstanding Virginia team that won the conference championship we also tied. We were in the big games, and we beat some traditional rivals. Stanford is always a fantastic rival we beat. The other thing is we ended up in seven overtime games and won four of them. So, when we look back it wasn't all doom and gloom, but we were young.
We were a talented team, but experience makes such a huge difference. It was tough for us to close out games sometimes, but also score goals. We look back on last fall as a learning experience for some of these young kids. Now we're going to be a bit older and a bit more mature with another fabulous recruiting class that's come in. We're going to be a handful.
GH: What will be the style of play this season?
AD: It'll be something that Damon [Nahas] and I have been working on for a while. We want to be the sort of team that plays the perfect combination of the direct and indirect game, but we want to be able to play through the lines when it's there for us. We want to be able to use anything that we could press an advantage to make sure that's incorporated into our game. We're going to have quality players in every line. We're going to have depth in every line and we're going to have experience now in every line which is something we could not say last year.
The other thing, that's the absolute cornerstone and has been a part of who we are from the beginning is we're going to press. We know that most of our opponents don't press, they sit back and have a line of confrontation which is the way some of the best teams in the world play. What we've discovered over time, the cornerstone for all the extraordinary success we've had is built on the press and competing. Pressing has been a trademark of our program and that will certainly continue to be a very critical piece of who we are.
GH: Who are some of the players you're looking to step forward this season?
AD: Except for the goalkeeper position, every line is laden with experienced players. The starting defense returns in its entirety; the starting midfield also returns in its entirety with the prospect of adding players in there.
Maycee Bell is irreplaceable and so right now we must build around her. At her best, Sam Meza is also irreplaceable. Emily Colton scored seven goals for us out of midfield last year and is going to be fabulous coming back after putting up [Brianna] Pinto-like numbers. Avery Patterson has been a warrior for us. We played her at every position in the field last fall and she was probably our best player. Those are the key players that we're going build the team around.
Talia Dellaperuta struggled last fall because of injuries and didn't get on the field much for us. Now she's starting for the U20 national youth team going to a world championship. She might enhance the entire midfield that's returning and maybe even fight her way in as a starter into an already well-established midfield. The front line is where we probably needed the most help. Even though we certainly had some talent, we rarely scored goals in buckets. The frontline needed sort of refurbishing, not we don't have talent coming back on that frontline because we do.
Ally Sentnor has the potential to be a goal per game scorer. Freshman Tori Dellaperuta could be a huge player for us and will compete to start in the nine up top.
We have other kids that also will challenge to start. We have the fastest girl from Minnesota coming in, Maddie Dahlien. We can play her flank midfield in a 1-3-5-2 or we could play her at left wing in a 1-4-3-3. We could certainly also play her in the nine, she's got incredible pace. Tessa Dellarose has been training with Racing Louisville FC of the NWSL and will challenge to start at left back. Sydney Cheesman has the skills to challenge returning starting right back Julia Dorsey for time.
Maci Teater has the skill set to challenge Emily Colton and the other players that we could have playing 10s for minutes in the middle of midfield. Kayleigh Herr is tough as nails, and she'll fight to play in the six. Kate Faasse will fight to get into the playing rotation up top as a striker.
Emily Moxley also has the potential to hold onto her starting position in the 1-3-5-2 at right midfield. She could also certainly step in and play for us at right back. We've got a lot of kids coming back that were starters for us in last year's incoming class. This incoming class will challenge that great recruiting class for playing time and not just for playing time, but also even to make the travel roster.
GH: With the addition of a highly touted recruiting class, how would evaluate this team's depth?
AD: I will boldly make this statement and I think it's absolutely true. This will absolutely be the deepest team we've had in our history, and we've had some very deep and talented teams. We're getting to where we've always wanted to be. We've got an entire collection of kids that are improving each other because of the caliber of the players in practice. It's the old cliche we've used for years about why the competitive cauldron is so effective in developing elite players. Our philosophy is steel sharpens steel, and we have steel in so many positions.
Players Mentioned
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward/Midfielder/Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Forward/Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
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