Oct. 31, 2005

College Park, Md. - The University of Maryland women's soccer team, which battled through the final game of the regular season to secure a spot in the ACC Tournament, plays the role of David to the Goliath of North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. The game is set for a 5:30 p.m. start at the SAS Soccer Center in Cary, N.C.

• The Terps are the No. 8 seed in the ACC Tournament for the second straight season, while North Carolina enters as the top seed. The winner of the game will move on to the semifinal round of the tournament and will meet the winner of the Duke-Boston College game (8:00 p.m.), which are the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds respectively. That semifinal game is set for a 5:00 p.m. start.

A Look Back At Last Week
• The Terps up and down regular season ended on a high note as Maryland defeated No. 8 Boston College 2-1 in front of a packed Ludwig Field on Saturday, Oct. 29.

• It may have been "Senior Night," but it was a pair of freshmen that scored the goals to send the Terrapins to the ACC Tournament. Kimmy Bunting, who was playing forward for the first time since Sept. 18, scored her second goal of the season in the 33rd minute to give Maryland a 1-0 lead. BC tied the score less than three minutes later, but the Terps, who have played six overtime games this season, would not settle for a tie. Kimmy Francis sent a corner kick to the middle of the Eagle six-yard box where Nataly Arias got on the end of it and headed it toward the BC goal, but an Eagle defender was there to knock the ball away. Aimee Bresani made a run from the midfield into the cluster of players after the corner was struck got a head on the cleared ball and finished it into the top right corner of the goal for a 2-1 Terrapin lead.

• Maryland was able to contain the Boston College offensive attack and not allow the Eagles a quality scoring chance for the remaining 40 minutes of the game. Terp goalkeeper Nikki Resnick made eight saves in the victory.

Scouting The Tar Heels
• The top-ranked Tar Heels are 17-1-0 (9-1-0 ACC) on the season, including winning 10 games by shutout. UNC defeated Maryland 4-0 on Oct. 2, in College Park.

• Offensively, Carolina is led by junior Heather O'Reilly and senior Kacey White. O'Reilly leads UNC with 15 goals and has also added nine assists for 39 points. White tops the Heels' with 16 assists, but has scored seven goals for 30 points. Entering the conference tournament, 13 different Tar Heels have scored goals this season.

• Defensively, Carolina has the school's all-time saves leader in net, senior Aly Winget. This season Winget has allowed only eight goals, made 37 saves and has recorded seven shutouts. UNC is allowing opponents only 2.8 shots on goal per game.

• Head Coach Anson Dorrance is in his 27th season at the helm of the Tar Heel program, compiling an overall record of 595-27-17 (.944).

Resnick Tops In ACC
• Junior goalkeeper Nikki Resnick , a native of Boca Raton, Fla., is leading the ACC in saves per game (6.24). In Maryland's 10 ACC games this season she has stopped 78 shots for an amazing 7.8 saves per game average.

• For the season Resnick has made 106 saves in 17 games. Among the other seven teams in the ACC Tournament, the next closest save total belongs to Clemson's Ashley Phillips with 82.

The North Carolina Series
• The Maryland-North Carolina series dates back to the start of the Terps' varsity program in 1987. In fact, UNC, along with Virginia and NC State are the only teams to have played Maryland at least once in each varsity season for the past 18 years. UNC leads the all-time series with the Terrapins 23-0-1.

• This will be the second straight season the Terps and Tar Heels will have met twice in the season.

• Earlier this year, goalkeeper Nikki Resnick was the star of the game for the Terrapins, breaking the Ludwig Field record for saves in a game with 14. The Tar Heels, at the time the top-ranked team in the nation, would go on to win the game 4-0.

• Last season the Terps take the Tar Heels to double-overtime twice, only to see Carolina score the golden goal with minutes remaining.

• The first meeting between the two schools was decided by a controversial foul inside the penalty box and a successful penalty kick giving North Carolina a 2-1 over the Terps with less than three minutes remaining in the second overtime period. Maryland shocked the 3,128 fans in attendance at Fetzer Field in the 17th minute of play when junior midfielder Mallory Mahar scored an opportunistic goal that came off a Tar Heel deflection. The Tar Heels tied the game in the 79th minute on a goal by Heather O'Reilly, who also converted the game-winning PK.

• The schools met again in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament with a similar result - O'Reilly scoring the game-winner in the second overtime. Maryland, despite being outshot 26-3, played a smart, defensive game with goalkepper Nikki Resnick making a then-career best 10 saves. The ending came in the 103rd minute when O'Reilly headed a cross from Jamie Gilbert for a 1-0 Carolina win.

• The last time Carolina played at Ludwig Field it posted a 4-0 win over the Terps on Oct. 5, 2003.

The Last Time vs. UNC In The ACC Tournament
UNC 1, Maryland 0 (2OT) • ACC Quarterfinals • Cary, N.C.
For the second time in 2004, the Maryland women's soccer team took No. 1 ranked North Carolina into a second overtime. But on Wednesday evening, for the second time this season, the Tar Heels were able to come out on top, this time by a 1-0 win in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the SAS Soccer Center in Cary, N.C.

"I'm really proud of the effort we showed today," said Maryland head coach Shannon Higgins-Cirovski . "Not only on defense, but our attack and midfield played tremendously. We got contributions from everyone on the field today."

North Carolina's All-American forward Heather O'Reilly took a cross from Jamie Gilbert and headed the game winner into the right corner of the net in the 103rd minute.

UNC pressured the Terrapin defense throughout the game, but sophomore goalkeeper Nikki Resnick was up to the challenge, stopping a season high 10 shots

"I can't say enough about how well our defense played," said Cirovski. "Nikki Resnick made some fantastic saves that really kept us in the game.

"But it wasn't just the defense," added Cirovski. "The offense played hard, developed some dangerous attacks and helped support on defense."

Resnick Shutting Out The ACC
• Nikki Resnick is fifth in career shutouts at Maryland with 11, but six of those shutouts have come against ACC opponents, including three ranked among the Top 11 in the nation at the time.

• This season, Resnick is tied for eighth in the conference with four shutouts overall, but three of those have come in ACC play which ties her for fourth in shutouts in ACC games.

Francis Within Striking Distance
• Senior captain Kimmy Francis has moved up several of Maryland's all-time lists during the 2005 season.

• With an assist on Aimee Bresani's goal vs. BC, Francis moved into sole possession of third place on the career points chart with 67. She was tied for third with Robin McCullough with 66. In second place is Emmy Harbo with 140 points.

• With her goal vs. NC State, Francis moved into a sole-possession of the sixth spot on the all-time goal scoring list with 22 goals. She is two shy of tying Jackie Mynarski for fifth with 24 goals and three shy of Michelle Deville, who compiled 25 goals during her career. Francis is already one of only eight players in the history of Maryland women's soccer to score 20 or more goals in their careers.

• Francis needs one assist to tie McCullough for third place on the career list with 24.

• The senior from Richboro, Pa., is second on the career shots list with 225. With 11 shots in the 2-1 victory over NC State, Francis passed Emmy Harbo who fired 214 shots during her career.

Long Range Threat
• Sophomore midfielder Nataly Arias has made a habit of scoring big goals for the Terps in ACC action - or should it be long goals. Two of Arias' four career goals have come on 35-yard blasts to either tie or beat a Top 15 opponent.

• Last year with the Terps trailing 1-0 vs. No. 14 Florida State at home, Arias fired a 35-yarder with her right foot that sailed past FSU's keeper into the net to give the Terps a 1-1 tie.

• Arias did the exact same thing on Sept. 30 vs. No. 11 Wake Forest, but this time the game was scoreless at the time and the Terrapins were able to hold on for a 1-0 victory.

Playing Overtime
• Maryland has played six overtime games in 2005, tying for the second most in team history with the 1988 team. That '88 squad was 1-3-2 in those six games, while this year's Terrapins are 1-2-3.

• The record for most overtime games in a single season belongs to the 2004 Maryland team, which played in eight overtime contests (2-2-4).

Playing The Best
• Once again in 2005, Maryland's strength of schedule is among the toughest in the nation, according to SoccerRatings.com. The Terrapins' opponent rating, which is the average rating of their opponents, is 1707. Only other teams with ratings above 1700 are Stanford (1745) and Washington (1751).

• The Terps take on 10 teams in the latest NSCAA poll including three of the top five and six of the top 10. The Terps host host No. 1 Penn State (0-3 L), No. 3 North Carolina (0-4 L), at No. 5 Notre Dame (0-6 L), at No. 6 Florida State (Oct. 6), host No. 8 Boston College (2-1 W), at No. 10 Virginia (Oct. 23), at No. 13 Duke (0-1 L), vs. No. 14 UConn at the Notre Dame Invitational (1-2 L, 2OT), host No. 21 Yale (0-1 L), and at No. 23 Clemson (0-0 T). Maryland also faces two teams that also received votes this week: Villanova (0-2 L) and Wake Forest (1-0 W).

• During six of the past seven seasons, Maryland has at least one upset win or tie of a top-10 ranked team: a 4-3 win at No. 9 Duke on Sept. 19, 1999 and a 2-1 victory over Clemson on Oct. 17, 1999; a 3-1 win over No. 4 Penn State on Aug. 29, 2000; a 1-0 overtime over No. 8 Clemson on Oct. 13, 2001 and a 1-1 tie at No. 2 North Carolina last season, on Nov. 1, 2002. Most recently, the Terps stunned No. 3 UCLA 2-1 at the Virginia Soccer Classic on Sept. 12, 2004. A month and a half later, Maryland beat No. 10 Duke 1-0 in overtime at Ludwig Field. The Terps topped all of those victories with a 1-0 shutout of No. 2 seed Penn State in the 2004 NCAA Tournament. The win also snapped the Nittany Lions 39-game home winning streak and was head coach Paula Wilkins' first-ever loss at Jeffrey Field. The Terps extended that streak in 2005 with a 2-1 upset of No. 8 Boston College on Oct. 29 at Ludwig Field.

Media Information
• WMUC Radio: Maryland's student radio station WMUC (88.1 FM) will broadcast every home Maryland women's soccer game in 2005. A pregame show will air approximately 30 minutes prior to kickoff. WMUC's broadcasts can be heard live on the Internet at wmucsports.com and will be linked to umterps.com.

• Email Straight To You: If you would like the latest Maryland women's soccer news emailed directly to you as soon as it breaks, email women's soccer contact Patrick Fischer at pfischer@umd.edu with the message "Women's Soccer Email" as the subject and you will receive every update.

• Terps on the Web: For up-to-date game stories, statistics, schedules and results, and other Maryland athletic department information, please locate www. umterps.com on the Internet.