After a weekend in Iowa they’d like to forget, the No. 1 UNC field hockey team got back to its winning ways Friday in New Jersey. The Tar Heels played their second true road game in a row, this time against No. 13 Princeton, and pulled away from the Tigers late to secure a 4-1 victory.

Sophomore midfielder Katie Dixon gave Carolina its first lead of the young season with a goal in the first quarter. The Tar Heels then withstood an offensive flurry from the Tigers at the end of the first period, with freshman goalkeeper Abigail Taylor making three saves in six minutes.

Princeton evened things up midway through the second quarter, but Carolina answered just 82 seconds later, with freshman forward Kennedy Cliggett scoring her first goal as a Tar Heel to give UNC the lead again.

At halftime, statistics showed the two teams were almost dead even: tied with seven shots and four saves. Carolina, of course, held the advantage where it counted: two goals to one.

The score stayed put until late in the third, when senior midfielder Eva Smolenaars converted a classy finish for her second goal of the season and gave UNC a critical two-score lead. One more from senior forward Hannah Griggs, her second on the season as well, put the icing on the cake, and sealed Carolina’s first win of their third straight NCAA title defense. The victory also assured the field hockey program would avoid losing three in a row for the first time since 2006.

The game marked Princeton’s first field hockey contest at all since meeting the Tar Heels in the 2019 NCAA Championship, won by Carolina. The Tigers’ 2020 season was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Carolina will stay in Princeton over the weekend and take on its second consecutive Ivy League opponent, the Penn Quakers, on Sunday at 11 a.m.

 

Featured image via Princeton Athletics

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