North Carolina's field-hockey team proved yesterday that statistics don't always tell the story.
Wake Forest had a 13-8 advantage in shots and a 7-3 advantage in penalty corners, but No. 3 UNC won yesterday's NCAA quarterfinal game 4-1 at sun-drenched Kentner Stadium.
"I thought my kids played a brilliant game plan. We had a game plan and they stuck to it from the first minute. I thought we executed it to a T," Coach Jennifer Averill of Wake Forest said. "If you look at the statistics it's frustrating, it's disappointing walking away outplaying, outshooting them."
The Tar Heels (18-2) took advantage of a penalty corner early in the game. Riley Foster shot the penalty corner to Melanie Brill, whose shot was blocked by goalkeeper Kaitlyn Ruhf. Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany picked up the lose ball and fired it past Ruhf to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead at 5:46.
Kelsey Kolojejchick scored for the Tar Heels on a breakaway for a 2-0 lead at 15:21.
"They out-statted us today. In many phases of the game I think they outplayed us," said Coach Karen Shelton of North Carolina, which went 3-0 against Wake Forest (13-7) this season.
The Deacons finally took advantage of a penalty corner just before halftime. With about 30 seconds left, they were given a penalty corner. After the buzzer had already sounded, which is legal in field hockey, Aileen Davis scored off an assist from Melissa Martin to make it 2-1 at halftime.
"That was clutch. We made that play up especially for Carolina," Averill said. "So we were antsy to use it and it was good execution. I felt like we had the momentum going into the second half, and it just kinda got away from us."
Danielle Forword scored for North Carolina 2:35 into the second half on an assist from Katelyn Falgowski on a 2-on-1 break for a 3-1 lead.
After Wake Forest missed on three straight penalty corners within about a minute of each other with just less than 20 minutes left, Elizabeth Dradzowski picked up a lose ball and scored at 51:41 on a breakaway.
"That's the risk you take if you're going to go for it," Averill said. "They're a great open-breaking team, and they finish their opportunities."
The NCAA semifinals and championship will be back at Kentner Stadium next weekend. No. 1 Maryland will play No. 4 Princeton on Friday at 2 p.m., and North Carolina will play No. 2 Virginia at 4:30. The winners will play in Sunday's championship at noon.
The loss was especially tough for Wake Forest, since it is the host for next week's championship. Wake Forest's losses have come against North Carolina (three), Maryland (two) and Virginia (two).
"It's rough to host it," Averill said. "We had kind of a motto, ‘Make sure we're playing in it so we don't have to work it.'
"I guess I'll be working it."
North Carolina will be trying for its sixth national championship, the last coming in 2007, when it defeated Penn State 3-0 in College Park, Md.
"We're absolutely thrilled to go to the final four….," Shelton said. "The toughest game to win is this game to get you to the final four. In fact, we focus much of our training to winning the second game of the NCAA Tournament."
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