The UNC women’s soccer team kicked off its 2022 regular season with a bang Thursday evening, shutting out No. 11 Tennessee 3-0 at Dorrance Field.

As was the case during Carolina’s impressive two impressive exhibition wins, the Tar Heels dominated possession all night. UNC doubled up the Volunteers on shots, 24-12, and Carolina goalkeepers Marz Josephson and Emmie Allen each made four saves. Allen made her first career start and played the first 45 minutes, while the senior Josephson came in after halftime.

Senior midfielder Aleigh Gambone, on as a substitute, opened the scoring in the 39th minute with her first career goal, slotting home a ball which had deflected off the Tennessee crossbar. The Tar Heels would add to the lead in the second half on goals from senior defender Tori Hansen and junior forward Avery Patterson. Patterson in particular has been red-hot for the Tar Heels early, having scored three goals across Carolina’s two exhibition matches.

“In the second half we got a little bit of separation, and I thought the chances we created throughout the game were the margin of victory,” UNC head coach Anson Dorrance said. “We created a lot of chance beyond the three we scored, so that’s encouraging because the biggest issue we had was scoring goals.”

Dorrance used his substitutes liberally, using 23 total players during the match. Only defenders Hansen and Maycee Bell played the entire 90 minutes, and no other player played more than 68. Even more encouraging is the fact that two of Dorrance’s players, Tori Dellaperuta and Ally Sentnor, are in Costa Rica for the FIFA U20 World Cup.

Dellaperuta and Sentnor will likely be back before the end of the month. In the meantime, Carolina has one more home match before embarking on an ambitious road trip. The Tar Heels will host UNC-Wilmington at Dorrance Field on Sunday at 1 p.m., then are off to Austin, TX for matches against Texas and Baylor. The team will remain on the road through the beginning of September for a visit to Missouri. Their next home match won’t be until September 4 against No. 13 UCLA.

 

Featured image via UNC Women’s Soccer on Twitter

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