North Carolina used an overwhelming edge in corner kicks Wednesday to take N.C. State out of the ACC tournament with a 3-0 first-round victory at SAS Soccer Park in Cary.
The No.1-seeded Tar Heels (19-1) got two goals off corner kicks in the final nine minutes of the first half and had an 11-1 edge for the game.
“We went out there in the first half with a plan to play a more defensive style,” Wolfpack coach Laura Kerrigan said. “We figured if we could keep the game score low that we’d have a good chance to win it. Unfortunately, we gave up nine corner kicks in the first half. That hurt us in the end because they scored both [first-half] goals off of corner kicks.”
UNC also out-shot the Wolfpack 29-8 in the game, including a 16-2 edge in the first half. Pack senior goalkeeper Megan Connors tallied 12 saves in the loss. Connors said the number of corner kicks put pressure on the Pack.
“It puts a lot of pressure on me — it puts a lot of pressure on the defense, and it’s a good opportunity for whoever we’re playing against to score,” Connors said. “That’s one of the best opportunities that you’re going to get. It puts pressure on me.”
Kerrigan said the team wanted to find ways to break through the high-pressure game UNC likes to play. She said the team did a good job of that early in the game.
“What we wanted to do was relieve the pressure and find a player open on the weak side,” Kerrigan said. “We did that a couple of times early, but we didn’t do that enough in terms of playing the ball in to our front runners after relieving the pressure.”
Sophomore forward Lindsay Vera said the team worked on breaking through the pressure in practice.
“We were playing with the formations we’d been doing in practice — getting the two forwards up top to hold their line so when the ball gets up we make sure we stay onside and receive the ball,” Vera said. “We worked a lot on making those runs.”
Connors said the Pack plays tough teams every week in the ACC and it helps preparations for tough games.
“Playing in the ACC, we play against the top teams in the country,” Connors said. “Every game we come out and we battle. Every team is good. Any team can beat UNC. They’re a very good team but they’re very beatable.”
The loss and subsequent elimination figures to hurt State’s chances at a bid for the NCAA tournament, but UNC coach Anson Dorrance said the Pack should still get a bid for postseason play.
“I feel for N.C. State,” Dorrance said. “I think they’re a team that should get a bid. Laura [Kerrigan] felt she had to win today to get one, but they’re a quality team. I think the conference this year is so good, we should be sending eight teams. I’m hoping they’re one of the teams that’s selected. They’re an outstanding team, and they put up a great fight.”
Kerrigan said a win would have helped the team’s NCAA chances, but she’s still hopeful for a bid.
“I think we still have a chance to get in,” Kerrigan said. “We’ll find out on Monday whether we get in or not. We had a very solid season. We don’t have any bad losses on our record. All of our losses are to teams that are ranked high in their respective regions. I think we’ve got a chance to get in. Certainly a win today would have helped, but I think we’ve got a chance.”
Despite the loss, Kerrigan said she’s proud of the way the team fought during the game.
“We fought hard,” she said. “We had some chances that we didn’t convert. Convert one or two of those chances and it’s a different ballgame. The fight that those players have — we were against one of the highest pressure teams in the nation and we did relatively well. We can’t give up so many corner kicks and then we have to win that first ball off the corner. That ended up hurting us a lot — two goals off of corner kicks, that was the difference in the game.”
