Anson Dorrance has earned a week off and he’ll probably get it.
Can you believe the best women’s soccer conference in the country doesn’t let more than six teams play in the ACC tournament? If you look at the standings of haves and have-nots, you can see why.
The Tar Heels are sitting in seventh place despite a national ranking and a forthcoming high NCAA seed. Only the top six teams go to Cary for the league playoffs. And it looks like UNC will be left out with one regular season game left.
Carolina plays Thursday at Miami, which is in 13th place in the standings with a 1-8 record and 4-11 overall. Clemson, which is holding down sixth, plays the same day at 12th place Boston College, which also has a 1-8 ACC mark and is 7-9-1 overall.
The only team worse than those two opponents is Syracuse, which probably should drop the sport. The Orange are winless in nine conference games so far. Trivia question: which is the only ACC school that doesn’t field a women’s soccer team? Time’s up, Georgia Tech.
So, with powerhouses Virginia, FSU, Duke, Wake Forest and Notre Dame holding down the top five positions, Carolina will be home practicing unless the Heels win and Clemson somehow loses.
It’s okay. Dorrance deserves a week off from competition after notching his 900th career victory in the dramatic 2-1 win Sunday over the Fighting Irish on Avery Patterson’s header in the second overtime. The more balance there is in the sport, Dorrance’s dominance is still absurd.
After 43 seasons and those 900 Ws, the closest to him is former UConn head coach Len Tsantiris, who won 570 matches. That’s a 330-win differential if anyone is counting.
So let the Tar Heels get healthy and recharged while the meaningless ACC championship is determined next week.
In case they ask me, I would say why does it have to be a set number of teams? Why not say a .500 record allows you to compete in the league tournament and set up the bracket by seeds?
Does it matter that they don’t know how many hotel rooms have to be reserved? Do they care that they will sell a lot fewer tickets because the ACC’s iconic and local program won’t be competing?
It’s okay. Anson will be laughing all the way to practice.
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