Women's Soccer Hosts No. 1 North Carolina Today At 2 P.M.
9/29/2005 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 2, 2005
College Park, Md. - The University of Maryland women's soccer team is looking to maintain the momentum it gained in its 1-0 win over No. 11 Wake Forest on Friday night when it welcomes No. 1 North Carolina to Ludwig Field today for a 2 p.m. game.
A Look Back At The Wake Forest Game
Midfielder Nikki Resnick made the saves to give the University of Maryland women's soccer team a 1-0 victory over No. 11 Wake Forest Friday night at Ludwig Field.
"Simply put, our team deserved a win like this," said Maryland head coach Brian Pensky, who picked up his first win over a Top 25 team with the victory. "Nataly scored a tremendous goal, once again Nikki was great, and out whole team was extremely connected throughout. This win puts us in good position in the ACC and we look forward to a great challenge on Sunday."
Arias, a native of Alexandria, Va., gave the Terps the win on a 35-yard blast in the 66th minute. The play started on a corner kick by senior forward Kimmy Franics. The Deacons cleared the corner kick, but the ball ended up on the right foot of Arias, who laced a shot into the top of the Wake Forest net.
The Deacons, now down a goal, stepped up the pressure on the Terrapin defense, but Resnick rose to the challenge. The junior from Boca Raton, Fla., made six of her 10 saves in the second half, including four after Maryland took its 1-0 lead.
Wake Forest had two great scoring chances late in the contest, but Resnick made amazing saves to preserve the 1-0 lead. In the 82nd minute Resnick found herself one-on-one with Elizabeth Remy and made a twisting punch save to clear the ball away from the net. Remy was again the victim of Resnick's heroics two minutes later when Sarah Kozey played a thru-ball to Remy on the right side of the Terrapin 18-yard box. Remy laced a shot toward the upper left corner of the Maryland goal, but Resnick dove and knocked the ball away from the net.
Neither team was able to get on the scoreboard in the first half, but both teams had opportunities. In the fourth minute freshman Aimee Bresani was able to get a head on a corner kick by Francis, but the shot was blocked by a Wake defender.
The Demon Deacons answered back in the eighth minute when Kozey fired a shot from the left side of the box, Resnick was there for the save, but could not control the ball. The rebound went straight back to Kozey, who headed a shot back at the Terrapin net, but Resnick was there again to make the save.
The Terps' best opportunity of the first half came in the 31st minute when Francis pressured a ball played back to Doe, who sent a bad pass right to Kelly Rozumalski just outside of the 18 yard box. Rozumalski tried to chip the ball over Doe, but got a little too much on the shot and it sailed over the crossbar.
The victory raises the Terps overall record to 3-5-2 and 1-0-1 in the ACC. Wake Forest drops to 6-3-1 overall and 1-2-0 in the conference.
Scouting The Tar Heels
• The top-ranked Tar Heels are 11-0-0 (3-0-0 ACC) on the season, including winning seven games by shutout. UNC opened its ACC season with a 4-1 win over No. 12 Florida State in Tallahassee on Sept. 22, before beating Miami 4-0 on Sept. 25, in Coral Gables. North Carolina beat Clemson 4-1 on Friday, Sept. 30, before heading to College Park.
• Offensively, Carolina is led by senior Lindsay Tarpley and junior Heather O'Reilly. Tarpley, the 2003 National Player of the Year, missed the team's first four games of the season, but has scored four goals and added four assists since rejoining the Heels. O'Reilly leads UNC with 10 goals and eight assists for 28 points. Entering this weekend's games, 12 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 three goals, made 27 saves and has recorded five shutouts. UNC is allowing opponents only 6.6 shots per game with only 2.8 of those on goal.
• Head Coach Anson Dorrance is in his 27th season at the helm of the Tar Heel program, compiling an overall record of 590-26-17 (.945).
All-Time vs. The ACC
• The Terps have an all-time record of 31-65-9 (.338) in regular season ACC play.
The North Carolina Series
• The Maryland-North Carolina series dates back to the start of the Terps' varsity program in 1987. In fact, UNC State, 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 22-0-1.
• Last season saw 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 in 2004 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.
Playing The Best
• Once again, the Terps boast one of the nation's most competitive schedules. The Terps take on eight teams in the preseason NSCAA poll including three of the top five and six of the top 10. The Terps host No. 1 North Carolina (Oct. 2), host No. 2 Penn State (0-3 L), at No. 6 Notre Dame (0-6 L), at No. 7 Virginia (Oct. 23), host No. 8 Boston College (Oct. 29), at No. 9 Duke (Oct. 16), host No. 11 Wake Forest (1-0 W), at No. 14 Florida State (Oct. 6), and vs. No. 16 UConn at the Notre Dame Invitational (1-2 L, 2OT).
• During five of the past six 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.
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.
