2021 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team

2021 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer
NCAA Tournament, First Round
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
U. Soc. Coaches  poll	No. 14
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 17
Record	12–3–3 (5–2–3 ACC)
Head coach	Anson Dorrance (45th season)
Assistant coaches	Chris Ducar (26th season) Damon Nahas (6th season) Heather O'Reilly (3rd season)
Home stadium	Dorrance Field
Seasons ←  2020 2022  →

2021 ACC women's soccer standings

v t e	Conf.									Overall
Team	W		L		T		PCT			W		L		T		PCT
No. 8 Virginia  ‍†‍‍y	8	–	0	–	2		.900			18	–	3	–	2		.826
No. 1 Florida State  ‍‍‡‍y	7	–	1	–	2		.800			21	–	1	–	3		.900
No. 5 Duke  ‍‍‍y	7	–	2	–	1		.750			16	–	4	–	1		.786
No. 16 Notre Dame  ‍‍‍y	7	–	3	–	0		.700			14	–	6	–	2		.682
Clemson  ‍‍‍y	6	–	3	–	1		.650			12	–	7	–	1		.625
No. 14 North Carolina  ‍‍‍y	5	–	2	–	3		.650			12	–	3	–	3		.750
No. 25 Wake Forest  ‍‍‍y	6	–	4	–	0		.600			16	–	6	–	0		.727
Virginia Tech  ‍‍‍y	5	–	3	–	2		.600			12	–	6	–	2		.650
Pittsburgh  ‍‍‍	4	–	6	–	0		.400			11	–	7	–	0		.611
NC State  ‍‍‍y	4	–	6	–	0		.400			9	–	9	–	2		.500
Louisville  ‍‍‍	3	–	6	–	1		.350			7	–	7	–	2		.500
Boston College  ‍‍‍	1	–	9	–	0		.100			7	–	10	–	1		.417
Miami (FL)  ‍‍‍	1	–	9	–	0		.100			4	–	12	–	0		.250
Syracuse  ‍‍‍	0	–	10	–	0		.000			4	–	12	–	1		.265
† – Conference champion ‡ – 2021 ACC Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament As of December 7, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Poll Source: The ACC

The 2021 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2021 NCAA Division I women's soccer season. It was the 45th season of the university fielding a program. The Tar Heels were led by 45th year head coach Anson Dorrance and played their home games at Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

They finished the season 12–3–3, 5–2–3 in ACC play to finish in a tie for sixth place. Only six teams qualified for the ACC Tournament and the Tar Heels lost the tiebreaker to Wake Forest and did not qualify for the tournament. This was the first time in program history that North Carolina missed out on the ACC Tournament. ^[1] They received an at-large bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament where they lost to South Carolina in the First Round. Their First Round exit was the earliest exit of any NCAA Tournament they had participated in.

Previous season

Main article: 2020 North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACC played a reduced schedule in 2020 and the NCAA Tournament was postponed to 2021. ^{[2] [3]} 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. ^[4]

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.

Squad

Roster

As of September 8, 2021 ^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. 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 3 MF   ENG Ruby Grant 4 DF   USA Paige Tolentino 5 MF   USA Mary Elliot McCabe 6 MF   USA Emerson Elgin 7 DF   USA Julia Dorsey 8 FW   USA Emily Moxley 9 MF   USA Rachel Dorwart 10 MF   USA Rachel Jones 11 MF   USA Lauren Wrigley 13 FW   USA Isabel Cox 14 MF   USA Kai Hayes 15 FW   USA Avery Patterson 16 FW   USA Aleigh Gambone 17 GK   USA Marz Josephson 18 MF   USA Bella Sember 19 MF   USA Emily Colton

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 MF   USA Libby Moore 21 FW   USA Ally Sentnor 22 DF   USA Tori Hansen 23 MF   USA Madi Pry 24 FW   USA Talia DellaPeruta 25 DF   USA Maycee Bell 26 FW   USA Hallie Klanke 27 MF   USA Makenna Dominguez 28 MF   USA Maggie Pierce 29 MF   USA Meilin Gregg 31 MF   FIN Annika Huhta 32 GK   USA Emmie Allen 33 MF   USA Riley Quinlan 35 FW   IRL Emily Murphy 39 FW   USA Asha Means 71 FW   USA Mollie Baker 82 MF   USA Carly Wetzel 98 FW   USA Anna Priborkina

Team management

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

Source: ^[5]

Schedule

Source: ^[6]

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
August 9 5:00 p.m.	No. 3	UNCW	W 3–1	–	Dorrance Field (812) Chapel Hill, NC
August 12 7:00 p.m.	No. 3	at  High Point	W 6–1	–	Bryan Park Browns Summit, NC
Non-conference Regular season
August 19 7:00 p.m.,  ACCNX	No. 3	No. 19  Washington	W  4–1	1–0–0	Dorrance Field (2,186) Chapel Hill, NC
August 22 1:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 3	No. 13  Arkansas	W  1–0	2–0–0	Dorrance Field (1,532) Chapel Hill, NC
August 26 9:00 p.m.,  BTN	No. 2	at  Illinois	W  5–1	3–0–0	Demirjian Park (833) Urbana-Champaign, IL
August 29 1:30 p.m., BTN	No. 2	at  Ohio State	W  2–0	4–0–0	Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium (1,320) Columbus, OH
September 2 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 2	Northwestern	W  2–0	5–0–0	Dorrance Field (1,734) Chapel Hill, NC
September 5 1:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 2	No. 10  Stanford	W  2–1  OT	6–0–0	Dorrance Field (2,756) Chapel Hill, NC
September 9 7:00 p.m.,  SECN+	No. 2	at  Florida	W  7–1	7–0–0	James G. Pressly Stadium (493) Gainesville, FL
September 12 1:00 p.m.,  ESPN+	No. 2	at No. 17  UCF	Canceled due to weather		UCF Soccer and Track Stadium Orlando, FL
ACC Regular Season
September 17 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 2	No. 4  Duke Rivalry	L  0–1	7–1–0 (0–1–0)	Dorrance Field (5,301) Chapel Hill, NC
September 23 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	Virginia Tech	T  2–2  2OT	7–1–1 (0–1–1)	Dorrance Field (2,157) Chapel Hill, NC
September 26 1:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	No. 22  Clemson	W  3–0	8–1–1 (1–1–1)	Dorrance Field (1,885) Chapel Hill, NC
October 3 1:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 5	No. 2  Virginia	T  0–0  2OT	8–1–2 (1–1–2)	Dorrance Field (2,222) Chapel Hill, NC
October 7 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 5	at  Pittsburgh	W  1–0	9–1–2 (2–1–2)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,531) Pittsburgh, PA
October 10 1:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 5	at  Boston College	W  2–1  OT	10–1–2 (3–1–2)	Newton Campus Soccer Field (853) Chestnut Hill, MA
October 16 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 3	at  NC State Rivalry	L  0–1	10–2–2 (3–2–2)	Dail Soccer Field (1,234) Raleigh, NC
October 21 8:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 7	No. 1  Florida State	T  2–2  2OT	10–2–3 (3–2–3)	Dorrance Field (1,447) Chapel Hill, NC
October 24 1:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 7	No. 15  Notre Dame	W  1–2  2OT	11–2–3 (4–2–3)	Dorrance Field (2,248) Chapel Hill, NC
October 28 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 7	at  Miami (FL)	W  4–0	12–2–3 (5–2–3)	Cobb Stadium (706) Coral Gables, FL
NCAA Tournament
November 13 2:00 p.m., ACCNX	(2) No. 10	South Carolina First Round	L  0–1	12–3–3	Dorrance Field (2,390) Chapel Hill, NC
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern.

Awards and honors

Recipient	Award	Date	Ref.
Maycee Bell	Preseason All-ACC Team	August 12	[7]
Rachel Jones
Claudia Dickey	Preseason Hermann Trophy Watchlist	August 19	[8]
Rachel Jones
Claudia Dickey	ACC Defensive Player of the Week	August 31	[9]
Avery Patterson	ACC Co-defensive Player of the Week	October 5	[10]
Maycee Bell	All-ACC First Team	November 4	[11]
Sam Meza	All-ACC Second Team
Claudia Dickey	All-ACC Third Team
Emily Colton	ACC All-Freshman Team
Emily Murphy

Rankings

See also: 2021 NCAA Division I women's soccer rankings

Ranking movements
Legend:██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
United Soccer [12]	3 (3)	2 (4)	2 (1)	2 (2)	2 (1)	4	5	5	3	7	7	7	10	Not released			14
TopDrawer Soccer [13]	4	4	3	3	2	4	4	4	3	6	5	4	4	14	16	16	17

2022 NWSL Draft

Main article: 2022 NWSL Draft

Player	Team	Round	Pick #	Position
Claudia Dickey	OL Reign	2	20	GK

Source: ^[14]

References

1. "UNC women's soccer team moves to postseason despite not qualifying for ACC playoffs". dailytarheel.com. The Daily Tar Heel. November 3, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
2. "ACC Women's Soccer 2020 Preview | College Soccer". TopDrawerSoccer.com. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
3. "NCAA Division 1 Council Approves Moving 2020 Fall Championships to Spring 2021". SI.com. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
4. "Atlantic Coast Conference Announces Spring Olympic Sports Schedules". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
5. "2021-22 Women's Soccer Roster". University of North Carolina Athletics. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
6. "2021 Women's Soccer Schedule". goheels.com. University of North Carolina. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
7. "Florida State Tabbed 2021 ACC Women's Soccer Preseason Favorite". theacc.com. Atlantic Coast Conference. August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
8. "2021 Women's Hermann Trophy Watch List Announced". machermanntrophy.org. Missouri Athletic Club. August 19, 2021. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
9. "Boston College's Boama, North Carolina's Dickey Earn ACC Weekly Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. August 31, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
10. "ACC Announces Women's Soccer Weekly Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
11. "2021 All-ACC Women's Soccer Awards Announced". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
12. "United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Women — National". unitedsoccercoaches.org. United Soccer Coaches. December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
13. "College Soccer National Rankings". topdrawersoccer.com. TopDrawer Soccer. December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
14. "Claudia Dickey Selected By OL Reign In NWSL Draft". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. December 18, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.