The UNC field hockey team moved to 4-0 in 2022 with another home win against an Ivy League opponent. Two days after dispatching Princeton, the Tar Heels did the same to Penn at Karen Shelton Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Ryleigh Heck and Erin Matson continued to swing red-hot sticks. The freshman and fifth-year seniors each scored goals in the first half. It was Heck’s third and Matson’s fifth of the season. Together, they have accounted for half of Carolina’s 16 goals on the season.

Junior midfielder Kiersten Thomassey scored her first goal of the season and second of her career late in the first half. The score came less than a minute after Matson’s and gave UNC a 3-0 lead going into halftime. Meredith Sholder scored 1:27 into the second half, and that was all the Tar Heels would need.

The goalkeeping duo of Kylie Walbert and Abigail Taylor each played one half, and the pair combined to pitch Carolina’s first shutout of the young campaign. All in all, though, it wasn’t a busy day for either: UNC out-shot the Quakers 21-5 and allowed just two shots on goal. Walbert made both saves in the second quarter, whereas Taylor didn’t have to make any saves at all.

The breezy win concluded a 2-0 weekend in Chapel Hill for the No. 2 Tar Heels, who won’t be back in Karen Shelton Stadium for another 19 days. Six of the team’s next seven games will be on the road, including two on the west coast against Cal and Stanford next weekend.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications


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