Field Hockey Season Comes to an End in ACC Semifinal

Friday, November 6

Chapel Hill, NC

4 PM

Syracuse University

(5-4 (3-2ACC))

North Carolina

(9-1 (4-1ACC))

Syracuse

North Carolina

Field Hockey Season Comes to an End in ACC Semifinal

11/6/2020 7:27:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

Syracuse went toe-to-toe with two-time defending national champion North Carolina in the ACC Tournament Semifinals on Friday evening, ultimately losing 4-3 in overtime, when the Tar Heels scored on a penalty stroke. The Orange finish the 2020 fall campaign 5-4 overall. Eefke van den Nieuwenhof scored her second goal of the ACC Tournament and third of the season while Pleun Lammers and Hailey Bitters both scored their first career goals.

"This lays the foundation for a championship," head coach Ange Bradley said. "This is a very good team. Their work ethic, their belief, their aggression and their composure is outstanding. They remind me so much of the team I coached from 2012-15. This team is going to be around. We have a ton of freshman and their going to find a way to win a championship."

Three minutes into the game UNC took the lead on a penalty corner goal by a Bryn Boylan deflection. The Tar Heels held the 1-0 lead into the second half and outshot Syracuse 8-4 in the opening 30 minutes of play.

Less than a minute into the second half van den Nieuwenhof found the back of the cage on a penalty corner to even things at 1-1. SJ Quigley inserted and Claire Cooke set van den Nieuwenhof up with the assists on the goal. North Carolina regained the lead at 48:31 on a goal by Erin Matson and extended it to two when Paityn Wirth made it a 3-1 game. The Orange answered back on Lammers' goal, which was a tip-in off Carly Bothof's shot from the top of the circle to make it 3-2. With time winding down in regulation, senior Carolin Hoffmann swept a long pass from 30-yards out that connected with Bitters' stick to even things at 3-3 with 48 seconds remaining to force overtime.

'Cuse goalkeeper Syd Taylor made a pair of impressive saves to keep the Orange alive early in overtime. UNC had a breakaway down the field with 64:52 on the clock and Taylor slid to the ground to sweep the ball away from Matson but the Tar Heels were awarded a penalty stroke after the two collided in the circle. Boylan converted the stroke to the bottom right of the cage advancing UNC to the ACC Championship on Sunday.

Syracuse edged North Carolina 17-16 in shots and 5-4 in corners while Taylor followed up her career-high eight saves in Thursday's quarterfinal with six against the Tar Heels Friday night. The Orange conclude their season with a winning record for the
13th time in Bradley's 14 seasons on the Syracuse sidelines.