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No. 18 North Carolina (10-3-3, 5-2-2) came to town on Sunday afternoon to face the Syracuse Orange women’s soccer team (8-7-3, 1-6-2), who would’ve loved nothing more than to have sent them home with their fourth loss of the season. For the better part of the match, though, the Tar Heels were just too much to handle, eventually earning 3-1 victory.
The Orange created a few scoring chances within the first 10 minutes of play but were unable to capitalize on any of them. UNC’s Megan Buckingham, a junior midfielder, got the Heels on the board in the 13th minute off of a great cross by redshirt-junior defender Maya Worth into the box. Buckingham’s goal opened up the field for the remainder of the half.
About 10 minutes later, freshman forward Bridgette Andrzejewski found the back of the net after defeating many of SU’s defenders inside the box.
With about 45 ticks of the clock left in the half, senior forward Stephanie Skilton got Syracuse on the board. Junior defender Alana O’Neill fed the ball perfectly to Skilton who finished with a flourish. Her parents cheered in the stands, all the way from New Zealand, for Senior Day. It was her 6th goal of the season, tying her with Candy Reich (1996-99) on the program’s all-time list with 27 career goals and one game left to play.
The Orange actually outshot the Tar Heels 7-4 over the first 45 minutes but had little to show for it.
A little less than nine minutes into the second half, Andrzejewski scored for the second time of the day, scooping up Worth’s deflection and blasting it past junior goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan. From then on, UNC put SU’s defense to the test. They passed, not allowing a single goal the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the effort was too late for the offense to make anything happen on the opposite side of the field.
Players of the Match
- Bridgette Andrzejewski, UNC, Freshman, Forward: 4 shots, 2 shots-on-goal, 2 goals
- Megan Buckingham, UNC, Junior, Midfielder: 5 shots, 2 shots-on-goal, 1 goal
- Stephanie Skilton, Senior, Forward: 2 shots, 1 shot-on-goal, 1 goal
- Lindsey Harris, UNC, Redshirt-Senior, Goalkeeper: 5 saves, 1 goal allowed
- Eva Gordon, Junior, Forward: 2 shots, 2 shots-on-goal
Up Next
Syracuse will get on the road again for the final time this season when they travel to face Boston College (10-7-1, 2-7-0) on Thursday. Kickoff is set for 7:00 pm ET. The Orange have one last shot to have a winning season for the first time in four years.