The UNC field hockey team will play for the national championship for the second consecutive year. The No. 1 Tar Heels defeated Virginia in the national semifinals on Friday in Chapel Hill, smothering the Cavalier offense in a 2-0 win.

“Our girls battled that entire game. It was a fight,” said head coach Erin Matson. “There’s nothing like playing on our home field, in front of our home crowd. They made it – as we expected – an incredible atmosphere.”

Ryleigh Heck and Sietske Brüning each scored in the first half for Carolina. Heck’s goal in the opening quarter came as the Cavaliers were controlling most of the possession. Virginia outshot the Tar Heels 3-1 in the first 15 minutes and forced two saves out of UNC goalie Maddie Kahn, but Carolina made its lone chance count. Brüning doubled the advantage midway through the second quarter.

After halftime, Carolina clamped down on the Virginia offense and didn’t allow a shot in the entire third quarter. The Cavaliers pulled their goalie with five minutes remaining, but still were not able to threaten Kahn in the UNC cage. The Tar Heels stopped all five of Virginia’s penalty corner attempts on the day.

“Our defense shut them down,” Matson said. “They came up with great tackles. There’s not even one person I can call out, because… they all came up in big moments when they needed to.”

With the win, Carolina advances to the national championship game on Sunday, which will also be played at Karen Shelton Stadium. The Tar Heels will face the winner of No. 2 Northwestern and No. 3 Duke.

“We’re not done yet,” said senior back Romea Riccardo. “We celebrate for five minutes, and then we go back to seeing who we play. We look for the next one… yes, we’re going to the national championship, but we haven’t done [expletive] yet.”

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications

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