I would assume: G: Dickey D: Dorsey, Bell, Allen and Tolentino M: Grant (CM), Dellaperuta (W), Meza (CM), Jones (W) and Sentnor (AM) S: Cox or Dorwart. And yes, I would assume games will allow fans absolutely.
No, but he is 70 and they have not won since 2012. I don’t think it is a leap to think if they won that it might be his final title, whether we retires or not.
My hunch is that Dorrance will retire after the 2023 season unless he wins another national championship. He has been so close recently, and getting the job done one last time would be a cap on his career. [His record is not all that bad recently in the past 5 years. In these days of parity it wold be hard to do better than he has, even as many think he has lost his touch by not winning a National Championship. However, in reality "not that bad" in the last 5 years includes one year in the sweet 16 (2017), 4 years in the final 4, with two years losing 1-0 in the championship game (2016 and 2018), and one year a draw in regulation and overtimes but losing the shootout (2019).]
They did not lose in final in 2016. They lost 1-0 to West Virginia in semi final. Minor point. main point certainly true that their performance in the past 5 years has been better than nearly everyone (Stanford and FSU would be the exceptions).
Stanford and Arkansas look to be the toughest non-conf foes. I wonder if Stanford will return to form this year! That was a precipitous fall last year!
Interesting schedule…Illinois, Ohio State, Northwestern… for a second, I thought they had joined the Big 10! Stanford at home. Florida , Central Florida. Duke as first conference game. I still remember that flukey goal in OT a few years ago when Stanford beat UNC for the first time. Should be a fun season. I can’t wait to be able to watch live games.
Interesting Schedule indeed.... But also interesting is three newcomers on the roster (all freshmen.) Emily Moxley is a mystery. She is listed as a freshman, but it would make more sense if she were a junior transfer. I can't find any Emily Moxley soccer player on the internet except for the one who has had two good years at UNC-W. If it is the same person, she will be a good back-up forward and could blossom more than she has at Wilmington. The other two frosh are internationals -both with a middling youth career for their countries. Foward Emily Murphy has played in 3 qualifying matches for the U17s garnering 120 minutes out of a possible 270 and has booked one goal and one assist. Another forward is from
(Continued from above) The other, and perhaps the strongest of the two internationals, Annika Huhta, is a midfielder from Finland. She has played both for the U17s and U19s. She played full time in three losing matches in the U17 World Cup in 2018 (one assist) and also in 3 matches in the U19 qualifiers in 2020, scoring 4 goals but not making the championship round. It will be interesting to see if these newbies get to see much plying time. The best frosh should be Ally Sentnor, a pint size forward who has been a top scorer on the US youth teams at the U17 and U20 levels. I would be surprised if she does not work her way into the Heels starting line up and significantly contribute. The rest of the incoming freshmen all have potential, but may have a difficult time getting a lot of playing time, but certainly one or two could surprise and start. Emily Colton is the most likely given her youth scoring record, but her pace may not fit UNC's need. Bella Sember from New York is also in the running for significant time and like Emily Colton has had some looks on national youth teams. Speedy Asha Means from Lake Norman, NC may get some time as she has been a prolific scorer in youth soccer leagues. Lauren Wrigley had a great year two years ago, and may resume her form, and one can never underestimate a scrapper such as Makenna Dominguez from California, and Emerson Eglin, like Lauren Wrigley from New Jersey, has had good success at scoring form the midfield.
The question has been raised above about line up for 2021. Starting with the defense....because it s much clearer than trying to predict midfield or forwards! It will clearly be Claudia Dickey in goal, with two backups (a luxury we haven't had in awhile.) The defense will certainly be Bell, Dorsey, and Allen if we go with a three back. Assuming that she's healthy, Brooke Bingham might be the 4th defender... coming back after two years out with injury. But while she was a defensive stalwart in 2018, she may have lost her touch since her outstanding play (especially) in the 2018 run to the championship game. (See highlight video in the Georgetown game.) If not Bingham, then possibly Tolentino, but after that we'd be waiting to see who has blossomed...such as Avery Patterson, or maybe even Hallie Klanke. (I think that Tory Hansen -if she has returned to form- would be better at holding mid,) Playing 2 forwards it would likely be Cox and Sentnor as the season goes on. Other naturally true forwards would include Asha Means, and even (IMO) possibly Klanke or even Aleigh Gambone But a more flexible offense would obviously utilize attacking and wing mids like Rachael Dowart, Rachel Jones, Talia Dellaperuta and maybe Emily Murphy, Annika Huhta, or Emily Moxley. Bottom line.... the MIdfield is going to take a lot of experimenting and other than Dellaperuta, Sam Mesa, and Jones who will see a lot of time, the experimentation during the season will be very interesting to watch.
OK. Mystery solved. Emily Moxley is indeed only one person. Played her freshman year at UNC-W in 2019 and somehow is only a sophomore this fall. Her bio was posted in NC roster today. A Carly Wetzel has been added to the roster as a senior. Anybody have any info on her? Came from UNC club team, or a transfer??
Thanks, cp. A curious addition to UNC's roster. From a little looking at McDaniel's website Carly started 13 out of 23 games (with less starts later in the season) with 2 goals and 1 assist for her carreer at McDaniel. So she leaves her home state to come to UNC and now is on the team as a walk on. I'll be very surprised if she gets much playing time at all... but that is not the issue for some players. Over the years I've marveled at the phenomenon of many very good players who get precious little playng time who could start at most colleges choosing to stay the four years because they are enjoying their overall experience. I suspect that this is true at many colleges and universities.
The results of the scrimmage at High Point is 6/1 but no commentary or box score. The earlier scrimmage against UNC-W was 3-1 and a complete box score is posted. Everybody on the roster got significant time except Claudia Dickey and Brooke Bingham, both of whom did not play at all. I would have expected Bingham to get some time in that she was a former key starter and has been out for two seasons presumably recovering from injury. Dickey, I presume, was held out to allow the other two keepers to get time in. Anybody have any insight as to whether Bingham might play this year at all? (Now beginning her 6th year at UNC.)
Soccerhunter, I don't know what Bingham's status is. Neither Dickey nor Dorsey has played, not sure why, Also looks like super freshman Sentnor will miss the season, injured in first scrimmage. Horrible news..
so unfortunate. There seem to be so many top YNT players that end up with torn ACLs. Is it that they are overtraining? Playing beyond where their bodies are ready and not developed enough yet? or just a fluke? Maybe we just hear about them more??
2 or 3 years ago, FSU had a rash of them. Emily Madrill had 2 ACLs in 2 straight years, Kristen Lynch, Clara Robbins and LeiLanni Nesbeth. Knock on wood, nothing last year. I believe it to be a rash of bad luck.
Or probably not conditioned. Don’t know if it’s overtraining. I mean Ally Sentnor got hurt in her first scrimmage. She may have pushed it maybe or just bad luck. Wish we knew more on how it happened or the players just going all out each other.
Always unfortunate news to year. I would love to have a discussion or see more research specific to ACL's and competitive soccer so sorry to hijack the UNC thread but... I think a major factor is not "conditioning" per se but rather volume of training over time. Some of us remember when half the country or more played soccer until about Thanksgiving and then didn't start again really until March when the grass fields were playable again and the parks opened up after winter. The massive use of turf fields, and year round training now very common all across the country has had tradeoffs. Players are more skilled and gaining experience but the annual volume of training and competitive games has its toll. In other words, how many competitive club games had an incoming freshman college player played in their career in 1990 or even 2000 compared to 2021? For some kids than number could have doubled perhaps. They are better players, more committed, experienced, etc. but at what cost to their ligaments. How much "mileage" can you get out of an ACL?? All the wonderful training techniques and sport science now being applied just can't overcome such a high training volume for some players?