Field Hockey advances to National Championship game with win against Virginia

The North Carolina field hockey team advanced to its 12th National Championship game in school history Friday, defeating No. 2 Virginia 3-2.

Junior Elizabeth Drazdowski's goal in the 53rd minute, which put UNC ahead 3-1, proved to be the difference as the Tar Heels withstood a late charge from the Cavaliers to earn the team's first berth in the NCAA Finals since 2007, when North Carolina won its fifth national title.

"I told a lot of people, 'This is not going to be my last game in a Carolina uniform,' and I think our entire team bought into that entire idea," senior Melanie Brill said.

"We've been in it from the beginning, and we're just really thrilled to be in the National Championship game."

The two previous matches between the Tar Heels and the Cavaliers this season came down to the final minutes, and Friday's contention was no different.

UNC controlled much of the first half of play but failed to light the scoreboard until the 23rd minute, when senior captain Dani Forword corralled a Katelyn Falgowski pass at the top of the shooting circle, deftly maneuvered past her defender and rifled a backhanded shot into the lower left corner of the cage to give North Carolina a 1-0 lead on Forword's fourth goal in NCAA tournament play.

The one goal advantage would hold until halftime, but Virginia came out of the locker room on the offensive.

Less than three minutes into the second half, UVA appeared to equalize on a penalty corner goal by Inga Stockel. But as the Cavaliers celebrated, the officials conferred and disallowed the goal, ruling that the ball has crossed the goal line above the height of the backboard.

Neither UNC nor the officials could keep Virginia off the scoreboard ten minutes later, though, when UVA senior Traci Ragukas slapped a rebound past Tar Heel goal keeper Jackie Kintzer to put the two teams on level pegging.

The score remained knotted at 1-1 midway through the half when Falgowski intercepted an errant pass in midfield and fired to sophomore Taryn Gjurich, who stood all by her lonesome on the left side of the shooting circle.

Gjurich took the feed and slid a low shot past UVA goalkeeper Kim Kastuk to give UNC a 2-1 lead on Gjurich's first goal of the season.

Minutes later, freshman Kelsey Kolojejchick wove her way down the right sideline and sent a cross into the shooting circle. The ball trickled through a crowd of defenders before finding the stick on UNC junior Elizabeth Drazdowski, who slapped the ball out of the air and into the net to give the Tar Heels a two-goal advantage.

But the Cavaliers refused to go quietly, answering five minutes later when sophomore Paige Selenski tipped a penalty corner shot past Kintzer to cut the UNC lead in half with 11:36 to play.

Virginia continued to mount relentless pressure on North Carolina in the final ten minutes, earnoing multiple penalty corner chances, but the Tar Heel defense, led by Brill and Kintzer, held firm and held on for the 3-2 victory.

"I think our corner defense performed incredibly well, and I think as a whole our defensive backfield was very, very strong," coach Karen Shelton said.

"(Virginia) are so fast, and they put such pressure on our defense, and I'm just thrilled to be able to hold them to two goals."

The win gives UNC a chance to play for its sixth NCAA Championship, this time against No. 1 Maryland, who handed UNC its worst loss of the season when they defeated the Tar Heels 4-1 in Chapel Hill on Oct. 24.

"We know we have a lot to contend with, but again, the whistle's going to blow, and two teams go at it," Shelton said of Sunday's match against heavily-favored Maryland.

"Underdogs have won in the past."