2020 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team

The 2020 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season. It was the 44th season of the university fielding a program. The Tar Heels were led by 44th year head coach Anson Dorrance.

2020 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer
NCAA Tournament, Semifinals
ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
U. Soc. Coaches pollNo. 3
TopDrawerSoccer.comNo. 4
Record18–2–0 (8–0–0 ACC)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
  • Chris Ducar (25th season)
  • Damon Nahas (5th season)
  • Heather O'Reilly (2nd season)
Home stadiumDorrance Field
Seasons
← 2019
2021 →
2020 ACC women's soccer standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T   PCT W   L   T   PCT
No. 2 Florida State  ‍y 8 0 0   1.000 13 0 3   .906
No. 3 North Carolina  ‍‍‍y 8 0 0   1.000 18 2 0   .900
No. 4 Virginia  ‍‍‍y 5 2 1   .688 14 4 3   .738
No. 6 Clemson  ‍‍‍y 5 3 0   .625 12 5 2   .684
No. 7 Duke  ‍‍‍y 4 2 2   .625 12 5 4   .667
Louisville  ‍‍‍ 4 4 0   .500 5 7 0   .417
Virginia Tech  ‍‍‍ 4 4 0   .500 8 9 0   .471
Notre Dame  ‍‍‍ 4 4 0   .500 6 7 0   .462
Wake Forest  ‍‍‍ 3 4 1   .438 5 7 2   .429
Pittsburgh  ‍‍‍ 3 5 0   .375 11 5 0   .688
Boston College  ‍‍‍ 1 7 0   .125 3 10 1   .250
Syracuse  ‍‍‍ 1 7 0   .125 1 7 0   .125
Miami  ‍‍‍ 0 8 0   .000 1 11 1   .115
NC State  ‍‍‍ 0 0 0   5 3 1   .611
† – Conference champion
‡ – 2020 ACC Tournament champion
y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament
As of May 18, 2021
Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Poll
Source: The ACC
Note: † Due to COVID-19, NC State suspended the 2020 women's fall soccer season. They did participate in the spring season.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACC played a reduced schedule in 2020 and the NCAA Tournament was postponed to 2021.[1][2] The ACC did not play a spring league schedule, but did allow teams to play non-conference games that would count toward their 2020 record in the lead up to the NCAA Tournament.[3]

The Tar Heels finished the fall season 11–1–0, 8–0–0 in ACC play to finish in first place. As the second seed in the ACC Tournament, they defeated Virginia Tech, and Virginia, before losing to Florida State in the final. The Tar Heels finished the spring season 4–0 and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. As the second seed in the tournament, they defeated Denver in the Second Round, Washington in the Third Round, and Texas A&M in the Quarterfinals before losing to Santa Clara in the Semifinals to end their season.

Previous season edit

The Tar Heels finished the season 24–2–1, 8–0–1 in ACC play to finish in first place. As the first seed in the ACC Tournament, they defeated Notre Dame, NC State, and Virginia in order to be crowned champions. They received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated Belmont, Colorado, Michigan, USC, and Washington State before losing to Stanford in the Finals.

Squad edit

Roster edit

Updated January 26, 2021[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
0 GK   USA Claudia Dickey
1 FW   USA Sam Meza
2 DF   USA Abby Allen
4 DF   USA Paige Tolentino
5 MF   USA Mary Elliot McCabe
6 FW   USA Taylor Otto
7 DF   USA Julia Dorsey
8 MF   USA Brianna Pinto
9 MF   USA Rachel Dorwart
10 MF   USA Rachel Jones
11 MF   USA Emily Fox
12 FW   USA Alexis Strickland
13 FW   USA Isabel Cox
14 MF   USA Kai Hayes
15 FW   USA Avery Patterson
16 FW   USA Aleigh Gambone
No. Pos. Nation Player
17 GK   USA Marz Josephson
18 MF   USA Natalie Chandler
20 MF   USA Libby Moore
21 MF   USA Miah Araba
22 DF   USA Tori Hansen
24 FW   USA Talia DellaPeruta
25 DF   USA Maycee Bell
26 FW   USA Hallie Klanke
28 MF   USA Maggie Pierce
30 DF   USA Brooke Bingham
32 MF   USA Madi Pry
33 MF   USA Riley Quinlan
52 FW   USA Izzy Brown
71 FW   USA Mollie Baker
99 MF   USA Laura Sparling

Team management edit

Position Staff
Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham
Head Coach Anson Dorrance
Assistant Coach Chris Ducar
Assistant Coach Damon Nahas
Assistant Coach Heather O'Reilly
Director of Operations Tom Sander

Source:[4]

Schedule edit

Source:[5]

Date
Time, TV
Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site (Attendance)
City, State
Fall Regular season
September 17, 2020
5:30 p.m., ACCNX
Wake Forest W 4–1  1–0–0
(1–0–0)
Dorrance Field (0)
Chapel Hill, NC
September 20, 2020
11:00 a.m., ACCN
Virginia Tech W 1–0  2–0–0
(2–0–0)
Dorrance Field (0)
Chapel Hill, NC
September 27, 2020
3:30 p.m., ACCN
No. 1 at No. 7 Duke W 2–0  3–0–0
(3–0–0)
Koskinen Stadium (0)
Durham, NC
October 1, 2020
4:00 p.m., ACCRSN
No. 1 No. 3 Clemson W 2–0  4–0–0
(4–0–0)
Dorrance Field (0)
Chapel Hill, NC
October 15, 2020
7:00 p.m., ACCNX
No. 1 at Syracuse W 2–0  5–0–0
(5–0–0)
Dorrance Field (1)
Chapel Hill, NC
October 18, 2020
1:00 p.m.
No. 1 at Boston College W 3–1  6–0–0
(6–0–0)
Newton Campus Soccer Field (0)
Chestnut Hill, MA
October 23, 2020*
7:00 p.m., ACCNX
No. 1 No. 4 Duke W 1–0  7–0–0
(6–0–0)
Dorrance Field (0)
Chapel Hill, NC
October 29, 2020
8:00 p.m., ACCN
No. 1 at Louisville W 3–1  8–0–0
(7–0–0)
Lynn Stadium (112)
Louisville, KY
November 1, 2020
5:30 p.m., ACCN
No. 1 No. 13 Notre Dame W 2–0  9–0–0
(8–0–0)
Dorrance Field (0)
Chapel Hill, NC
ACC Tournament
November 10, 2020
5:30 p.m., ACCN
(2) No. 1 vs. (7) Virginia Tech
Quarterfinals
W 1–0  10–0–0
Sahlen's Stadium (217)
Cary, NC
November 13, 2020
8:00 p.m., ACCN
(2) No. 1 vs. (3) No. 9 Virginia
Semifinals
W 2–0  11–0–0
Sahlen's Stadium (307)
Cary, NC
November 15, 2020
Noon, ESPNU
(2) No. 1 vs. (1) No. 2 Florida State
Finals
L 2–3  11–1–0
Sahlen's Stadium (320)
Cary, NC
Spring Exhibition
March 6, 2021
Noon
No. 2 at North Carolina Courage L 1–2 
Sahlen's Stadium (0)
Cary, NC
Spring Season
March 13, 2021
5:30 p.m., SECN+
No. 2 at Tennessee  Postponed[6] 
Regal Stadium
Knoxville, TN
March 20, 2021
1:00 p.m., FLO FC
No. 2 at Delaware W 5–0  12–1–0
Grant Stadium (130)
Newark, DE
March 27, 2021
6:30 p.m., SECN+
No. 2 at Tennessee W 7–0  13–1–0
Regal Stadium (382)
Knoxville, TN
April 1, 2021
1:00 p.m.
No. 2 at Villanova W 1–0  14–1–0
Higgins Soccer Complex (43)
Villanova, PA
April 13, 2021
7:00 p.m., ACCNX
No. 2 Columbus State W 6–0  15–1–0
Dorrance Field (560)
Chapel Hill, NC
April 17, 2021
1:00 p.m., ACCNX
No. 2 No. 16 South Carolina  Exhibition[7] 
Dorrance Field
Chapel Hill, NC
NCAA Tournament
April 30, 2021
3:00 p.m., Youtube
(2) No. 2 vs. Denver
Second Round
W 2–0  16–1–0
Sportsplex at Matthews (327)
Matthews, NC
May 5, 2021
3:00 p.m., NCAA Livestream
(2) No. 2 vs. No. 21 Washington
Third Round
W 1–0  17–1–0
WakeMed Soccer Park (150)
Cary, NC
May 9, 2021
1:00 p.m., NCAA Livestream
(2) No. 2 vs. (7) No. 11 Texas A&M
Quarterfinals
W 1–0  18–1–0
WakeMed Soccer Park (164)
Cary, NC
May 13, 2021
8:30 p.m., ESPN2
(2) No. 2 vs. (11) No. 10 Santa Clara
Semifinals
L 1–3  18–2–0
WakeMed Soccer Park (2,166)
Cary, NC
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

2021 NWSL College Draft edit

Player Team Round Pick # Position
Emily Fox Racing Louisville 1 1 DF
Brianna Pinto Sky Blue 1 3 MF
Taylor Otto Racing Louisville 2 11 MF

Source:[8]

Rankings edit

Fall 2020 edit

Ranking movement
Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.
Poll Wk
1
Wk
2
Wk
3
Wk
4
Wk
5
Wk
6
Wk
7
Wk
8
Wk
9
Final
United Soccer[9] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2

Spring 2021 edit

Ranking movement
Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.
Poll Pre Wk
1
Wk
2
Wk
3
Wk
4
Wk
5
Wk
6
Wk
7
Wk
8
Wk
9
Wk
10
Wk
11
Wk
12
Wk
13
Final
United Soccer[9] None Released 2 (1) 2 (2) 2 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 2 2 (2) None Released 3 (1)
TopDrawer Soccer [10] 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4

References edit

  1. ^ "ACC Women's Soccer 2020 Preview | College Soccer". TopDrawerSoccer.com. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  2. ^ "NCAA Division 1 Council Approves Moving 2020 Fall Championships to Spring 2021". SI.com. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  3. ^ "Atlantic Coast Conference Announces Spring Olympic Sports Schedules". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "2020 Women's Soccer Roster". University of North Carolina Athletics. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  5. ^ "2020 Women's Soccer Schedule". goheels.com. University of North Carolina. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  6. ^ "Women's Soccer at Tennessee Postponed". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  7. ^ "Match Against No. 11 South Carolina to be Exhibition Match". goheels.com. UNC Athletics. April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  8. ^ Yang, Stephanie (January 13, 2021). "All the picks from the 2021 NWSL College Draft". allforxi.com. Vox Media. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  9. ^ a b "United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Women — National". unitedsoccercoaches.org. United Soccer Coaches. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  10. ^ "College Soccer National Rankings". TopDrawer Soccer. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.