Unfortunately for Virginia, Thursday night held no surprises for the women's soccer team or the large, extremely wet, crowed assembled at Klöckner stadium. The women's soccer team fell 2-0 as North Carolina added yet another tally to their win column and moved to 31-0-1 overall in the series.
"It's never fun to lose, I don't care who it is," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "We don't feel good about playing well and still losing to North Carolina, we are past that point."
North Carolina's go-ahead goal came in the 23rd minute. Senior Tar Heel forward Elizabeth Guess brought the ball to the 18 before dropping it off to freshman forward Whitney Engen. Virginia goalkeeper Christina de Vries surged forward to intercept the pass but was an instant too late -- a composed Engen took possession and tapped it by de Vries, dribbling twice before knocking it into the Cavalier's undefended goal.
Despite having a nighttime home-field advantage, the conditions most favorable for a Virginia win, once the No. 2 Tar Heels went ahead, the Cavaliers could not muster a comeback. With a little over 10 minutes remaining in the first half, freshman Tar Heel defender Ali Hawkins headed in North Carolina's second goal of the evening.
"It was unfortunate we gave up those two goals," junior defender Becky Sauerbrunn said. "The first goal I heard was offsides, but there's nothing you can do about it. The second was a set-piece goal, and those are the worst ones to give up. It was definitely disappointing."
For the first time in series history, Virginia out-shot North Carolina. Nevertheless, in the first half, the Tar Heels maintained control of the midfield and set the pace of the game. Winning the majority of their challenges and picking the ball out of the air, North Carolina monopolized possession while Virginia did little to help its cause. The Cavaliers turned the ball over time and again as North Carolina picked off the Cavaliers' predictable and often imprecise passes.
Whatever pep-talk Swanson gave his players at half-time, however, brought a newly motivated Virginia team out for the second half. Despite a multitude of chances though, the Cavaliers failed to get on the scoreboard.
"I thought Virginia totally outplayed us in the second half," North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. "To be completely honest, I thought the just result of this game should have been a tie. We did some good things in the first half, Virginia did some good things in the second, and I felt like we traded halves -- we just happened to score in our half and Virginia just didn't happen to score in theirs."
The Cavaliers will continue ACC play this weekend when they take on the Clemson Tigers in South Carolina. The team has yet to win on the road this season and for the first time since 1995, has gone three straight games without scoring a goal. The Cavaliers have a lot to prove Sunday.
"I've told the team that it's a two-game season right now," Swanson said. "We have Clemson then Virginia Tech and then about a week and a half break. I told them to concentrate on these next two games and then we can get back to the drawing board a little bit and get us ready for the stretch run."
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