UNC Field Hockey Victorious in Home Opener

After six consecutive games away from home to start the season – the longest such stretch for the program since 2015 – the UNC field hockey team returned home with a flourish Sunday afternoon, defeating Miami University 7-2 at Karen Shelton Stadium.

Tar Heel Victory! #GoHeels x @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/ZAjkyLhoNV

— UNC Field Hockey (@UNCFieldHockey) September 19, 2021

“I was really pleased with the game today,” Carolina head coach Karen Shelton said after the game. “It’s certainly great to be back at home after three long weekends on the road.”

Junior midfielder Paityn Wirth opened the scoring with her first goal of the season for Carolina, an unassisted score after a long run into Miami’s circle. But the RedHawks answered back just a minute later, evening the game up off a penalty corner.

“That little bit of lax after we score is a bit of an issue,” Shelton said. “We’ll talk about it. We’ll look at it on video and go from there.”

Carolina quickly re-established its lead late in the first quarter, with Hannah Griggs scoring the first of her two goals on the afternoon off a penalty corner. Vice-captain Cassie Sumfest picked up the assist.

The Tar Heels earned 15 penalty corners on the day, against just five for the RedHawks. The corner disparity was part of a dominating effort in possession by Carolina. At times it felt like the ball simply stayed in Miami’s half without any danger to the UNC goal.

“We’re always working on possession,” Griggs said. “If you don’t have anything going forward, we’re gonna go backwards, and we’re gonna go around again. We were able to rack up a number of corners today. And obviously we got a lot of goals from them. And it’s great for us, because we can start to roll the bench.”

UNC’s Hannah Griggs (#3) waits at the corner of the cage to deflect in a goal on September 19, 2021.

The Tar Heels earned a bench goal in the second half when sophomore Kiersten Thomassey scored off a rebound in front of the cage to extend the Carolina lead to 5-2. It was Thomassey’s first goal of the season.

“She’s getting better and better,” Shelton said. “She’s got such great attributes, and she’s gonna improve with more and more experience.”

“I’m so proud of Kiersten,” said captain Erin Matson, who added her tenth goal of the season on Sunday. “It was a great goal. We had scoring spread out across the board, which is awesome to see. We’ve talked about that a couple times, getting other people to score and getting more frequent in there.”

UNC’s Kiersten Thomassey (#35) scores against Miami on September 19, 2021.

With the win, the Tar Heels move to 4-3, and are over .500 for the first time all season. Their ACC opener will come Friday in Chapel Hill, when No. 3 Boston College visits.

“We know the tough part of the season’s coming,” Shelton said. “We know [Boston College] are gonna be good, we know they’re gonna be deep. There’s no easy team on our schedule. But again, what we talk about is that we continue to grow. So as long as we’re learning, we’re getting better, we’re staying positive, we’re staying together and working hard, good things will happen.”

UNC’s Jasmina Smolenaars (#22) hits a pass against Miami on September 19, 2021.

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UNC Field Hockey Victorious in Home Opener

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