No. 2 Michigan field hockey beats No. 1 North Carolina to open 2021 season

The game was pitted against the nation’s top-rated programs in a rematch of the 2020 NCAA championship game, which UNC claimed 4-3 in overtime. The Wolverines win today is their third win over North Carolina’s top-ranked team in their season opener since 2016.

It was freshman Alana Richardson, who set Maize and Blue’s first official goal of the 2021 campaign – and her college career – at 13:59 at the end of the first quarter. Senior Tina D’Anjolell made the ball go into the circle from the right, hit the UNC goalkeeper and it went out into the space to the left of the circle. Richardson unleashed a back header to the top of the cage and gave UM the lead.

TRANSCRIPT: Track scores throughout the season

D’Anjolell scored the winning goal on her own in the second half, at 24:15, when she picked up a bounce from Carolina’s keeper’s pad, her muscles slipping past a defender on her way to the side post. right and knock it down on the near-corner to give Michigan a 2-0 lead.

UNC scored twice in the fourth half, including one from the top of the circle in just 39 seconds, but the Wolverines added another opener – after Carolina pulled their keeper with 11 hours and 50 minutes remaining. – to stay ahead. Junior Sarah Pyrtek scored her third goal in Michigan at 49:36, receiving a pass up and into the circle from junior Nina Apoola and finding space between two Tar Heels converging to tear a reverse chip into goal.

North Carolina overcame the Wolverines 11-7 and overcame them 4-1. Senior goalkeeper Anna Spieker posted two saves in the Michigan cage, while UNC’s Abigail Taylor scored one.

Michigan will wrap up the ACC/Big Ten Challenge against Wake Forest No. 11 at 1 p.m. CDT on Sunday (August 29) at Iowa’s Grant Field.