Is there more annoying narrative than Anson hasn't won NCAA title in years? He doesn't need to win another one.
Yes, I agree. It is mindblowing to walk around in the conference room where they are all lined up - wall to wall trophies
Someone remind me what the NCAA rules are for players who have eligibility remaining, declare for the draft, but then do not get drafted. I'm looking at Maggie Pierce and I'm a little confused by the timing of her post announcing she's leaving UNC... after the draft. Maybe I'm looking too much into it and she just hadn't posted her farewell yet and timing was irrelevant, drafted or not.
Friendly reminder to undrafted players with eligibility remaining:You have 72 hours to e-mail your AD if you want to return to school and preserve your eligibility.— Chris Henderson (@chris_awk) January 13, 2023
My ever so brief look at the roster after the draft. Updates and corrections welcome. There are 36 players that will be on the 2023 fall roster if nothing else changes. That is one less of 2022's 37. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YXVMQMWGojRC_4C8UY7V3N9LUH-F1AOQhaeoY_797oU/edit?usp=sharing
Babs, Your analysis of next year's UNC team is the way I see it too. As I indicated before, I am hopeful that Izzy Cox and Julia Dorsey can engineer coming back next year as 5th year seniors. I see Izzy as a good fit in the offense if she platoons with Maddie Dahlien. Julia might be interested in another crack at the NCAA title and she, along with Maycee would be the leadership on defense with the rest of defense largely being first or second year players Next year's lineup.... Keepers: It should be a real contest to see who gets playing time. Abby Gundry and Nona Reason have the better pedigrees, but Emmie Allen played well this past year. I see all three keeper getting significant time early in the season with one of them grabbing the starting slot by mid season. It's going to be a real contest. Defense: We should have a very good defense next fall. Maycee should be the leader, and Kayleigh Herr and Tessa Delarose should come on strong. Add two very strong first year defenders, Savannah King and Evelyn Shores could easily start.
King played a lot of left side back with the USWNT and if you were to ask me the one position the Heels have the most depth at, it's left side wide backs. Dellarose, Elgin, and Tolentino. I don't know if she has any experience there but it wouldn't surprise me to see her used more as a forward winger, that is one of those spots that will be up for grab in the offsdeas and pre-season training. Right now the starting 11 for me, with what little insight I have about the new comers and also leaving the unknown Senior decisions off for now: Reason and Allen rotate in goal, Herr and Bell at CB with Dellarose and Elgin at outside back. Colton at the #6, anchoring Dellaperuta and Meza at the 10 and 8 respectively. Sentnor between Patterson on the left and Dahlien on the right. In that starting 11 it's Bell, Dellaperuta, Meza, Patterson, and Sentnor who are iron clad starters, and those names should also start the season in the top 50 players in the country (or I riot). I would not be surprised if some of the highly rated newcomers wins spots in CB, the #6, and the winger spot away from Herr, Colton, and Dahlien, respectively. Really want to see some growth from Colton this offseason ... with all the skill she clearly has it just doesn't make sense that she's pretty much the same as she has been from her first game in a Tar Heel uniform. It's been good enough up to this point to be a starter, but now the competition is top heavy. That will be especially true if Cox and Moore decide to return.
(Got cut off)....... So we will be in good shape with the "knowns" on defense, and we have other "knowns" such as Emily MoxleyEmerson Elgin who played very well this past year and we still have other defender, Sydney Cheesman who, while not getting much playing time this past year, might blossom next fall. Even if Emily Moxley went back to her original more offensive role, but the bottom line is that we sure do have a robust defensive line up in case we have another season with multiple season ending injuries. Midfield: We Should be strong in the midfield with Sam Mesa, Avery Patterson, Talia Dellaperuta, and Emily Colton coming back, but we will miss Libby Moore. Emily Moxley could be the 4th and other midfielders such as Bella Sember, Lauren Wrigley, Kate Fasse, and Page Tolentino could surprise and find themselves in the starting lineup. I would also not be surprised if some of the stellar incoming forwards would find a home in the midfield. Offense: These next two years could be terrific given the talent we will have. Coming into the 2023 season we are luck to have Ally Sentnor, Maddie Dahlien, and Tori DellaPeruta (not to mention Talia who just might play forward too). And so we will add freshman such as Melina Rebimbas who is one of the top 5 forwards in her age group, and Chapel Hill native Mia Olario (whose dad works in the athletic department at UNC), plus Olivia Thomas who are not far behind...if that. To put it bluntly, the three sophomores could easily be the starters, but the three freshmen might be even better. It will be interesting to see how the UNC staff manages this talent.
I think it’s also possible that someone like Evelyn Shores plays some mid. She scored a lot of goals (as a back) playing for Tophat. She also had high assist #s. But, to be sure, I haven’t seen her play so I’m only looking at #s.
She has a lot of pace and is relatively tall. She's an outside back, a wing back, or even a winger. She's an outside back for USYNTs. She scores goals for Top Hat because she plays some winger on that team due to team needs and competition level. She's a very strong player and should get lots of PT...somewhere.
A link to keep an eye on going forward. The transfer portal: https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/col...3-womens-division-i-transfer-tracker_aid51528
I follow BK Häcken (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Aleigh Gambone as well as Ruby Grant are listed as part of the squad for tommorrow's pre-season match against Alingsås. Link to article (in Swedish): https://bkhacken.se/nyhet/hanna-wijk-om-2023-prestera-pa-min-basta-niva Neither have been announced as recruits and neither show up on the club's normal squad list...
Good find! I don't know enough about the rules of eligibility to know if that absolutely rules out Ruby Grant returning. Separately, Libby Moore announced on IG she's moving on. Libby Moore is going to be the bar which I measure all other players in off season and season to season improvement. She went from practice player that got no time to an essential starter in midfield on a team that dramatically shortened its bench in a championship game, and did so seemingly from one season to the next. Will be missed.
From what I gather from the post above, this looks like a tryout at a non-conference pre-season game. Great if Aleigh makes the cut (Gothenburg is a wonderful and friendly city), but I have mixed feelings if Ruby also is invited to sign a contract in terms of her returning to Chapel Hill. But it would make sense if she is eyeing the talent coming in for the next two years and feels that this is the time to make a move. In this line of thinking, does anyone know what Murph was referring to when she posted that she would dearly miss the Heels and would be a "Tarheel forever", but was "over the moon" regarding her next opportunity...what would that be?
I don't think they risk any eligiblity for the moment. Alice Söndergaard, a Häcken academy player, was in the line-up for several of Häckens damallsvenska matches 2021 as well as a Champions League match against Benifica. And these were not friendly matches. She is now at Washington (Huskies).
Here's the low down on Ruby Grant (roughly translated from fotbollskanalen.se): In the past week, two players from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have trained with BK Häcken, including Ruby Grant. The English girl is in the squad that will face Alingsås IF on Friday. Fotbollskanalen has learned that Grant, who continues to attend college in the United States, will spend some time in Sweden as an apprentice with BK Häcken's team. On the other hand, the 20-year-old will not play any women's top league matches, but will play in matches in the elite league (second highest league). The midfielder will continue to study in Gothenburg in the meantime. Grant has also represented the England national team at youth level.
The 2023 recruiting class for UNC is all set (although there is always a possibility that a late signing will occur.) With regard to the 2024 class, there were 7 commitments until Taylor Suarez, who had committed UNC last September , switched to FSU in early January. (A good choice for FSU as Taylor is an excellent soccer athlete who, having finished her U17 play as a starter for most games, has been called up to the U18/19 camp and will likely be on the U20 roster next year.) With Taylor's departure I had wondered if Anson would be biding his time to look for a good international to be added next summer, but as of yesterday it appears that Linda Ullmark from Buffalo, NY has filled the slot. She looks like she may be one of those recruits that may have potential that she has not yet developed. She has done very well as a high school player in a small private school (several 10-0, 7-0 victories) but minimal mention in the ECNL arena (invited to a showcase this weekend.) We'll see!
UNC Spring Schedule 2023 UNC Women's Soccer Spring Schedule Feb. 25 at Wake Forest (6:30 p.m.) March 4 vs. Duke (12 p.m.) April 1 at Virginia (3 p.m.) April 15 vs. Clemson (3 p.m.) Al games will be on Saturdays. The home games (Duke and Clemson) will be on Finley Field. The 4 ACC teams will provide some good competition. Looking forward to see who is developing.
During these college soccer fan doldrums, I am always looking for news of changes, prospective recruits, and other factors for teams and players. Such starvation of real experience of watching games leads to foggy thinking. .....Such as looking at the 2023 class coming in for UNC and comparing it to the prospectives for 2024 who have verbally committed. Now looking at the 2023 the class, it is heavy on forwards. Of the seven freshmen coming in there are 4 forwards, 2 defenders and 1 keeper. So looking at the present midfielders on the roster, I see 3 midfielders who have regularly started this past season who will be back for 2023. This means that there will be some juggling to see who will rise to the occasion to start (and/or will be converted from a forward.) It will, of course be figured out for this fall and will be interesting to see how it evolves. And it gets interesting in 2024 as there are 4 players who have committed who are midfielders. (Well duh! If the three senior midfielders who will be playing this fall decide not to take the COVID 5th year, recruiting a package of midfielders for 2024 really makes sense.) And so it goes in the doldrums... discovering things that sharper intelligence has long ago figured out. Yawn. Can't wait to actually enjoy watching play on the pitch!
Update on the Spring Schedule from UNC. The April 1st game against UVA has been moved to 3/25 and it's in Richmond now, which makes a big difference for travel imo. Now I'm much more likely to go. The game vs Duke on 3/4 has been cancelled. Bummer. Hopefully they find someone else to scrimmage against. Looking forward to this Friday with memories of the bitter cold and wind from last years first spring season game. Game at Spry looks like it should be a little bit warmer.