A convincing 4-0 win over No. 15 Stanford on Friday in Chapel Hill in the first round of the NCAA Field Hockey Tournament has the top-ranked Tar Heels one step closer to repeating as undefeated national champions.

Stanford goalie Kelsey Bing is considered one of the best in the entire country–even spending time with the U.S. National Team–but UNC wasted no time scoring on her in this game.

ACC Defensive Player of the Year Yentl Leemans scored in the seventh minute of action to give the Tar Heels a lead they would never relinquish.

In the second quarter, UNC (20-0) received goals from senior Feline Guenther and ACC Offensive Player of the Year Erin Matson to take a 3-0 lead into halftime.

Matson then added her second goal of the game in the fourth quarter just for good measure.

Stanford (16-7) was only able to muster six total shots.

“We were really worried about this one with [Stanford’s] Kelsey Bing being the national team goalie, arguably the best goalie in the country, and [Stanford forward] Corinne Zanolli with 33 goals,” UNC coach Karen Shelton said afterwards. “We were just very nervous about it and I’m proud of our team. I thought it was a great team effort. We moved the ball well. We gave extra attention to [Zanolli] and she didn’t get many chances, many open looks at all. We gave a few too many corners away and that’s an issue for us but overall I’m excited we had four goals.”

UNC has now won its last 43 games dating back to the 2017 NCAA Tournament, extending a streak which is the longest in ACC history.

Up Next:

A date with Iowa looms for UNC in the second round on Sunday.

 

 

 

Photo via Dakota Moyer

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