WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Carolina wins NCAA field hockey title

Nov 23, 2009

Winston-Salem, N.C. — Senior captain Danielle Forword scored the game-winner on a penalty corner with 11.7 seconds on the clock Sunday afternoon at Kentner Stadium to give the North Carolina field hockey team a 3-2 win over No. 1 Maryland and hand the Tar Heels the sixth NCAA championship in program history.

UNC finished the season 20-2 and claimed its second crown in the past three years. The Tar Heels also won in 2007.

Maryland, which came into the game undefeated and had beaten Carolina 4-1 on Oct. 24 in Chapel Hill, finished the year at 23-1.

Neither team managed a first-half goal, but Terrapin Nicole Muracco got her squad on the board in the 43rd minute of play with a breakaway goal, her 31st of the year.

Maryland held the 1-0 lead for 18 minutes before Forword picked up her first goal of the game, grabbing a loose ball in the circle and firing her shot past UM goalkeeper Alicia Grater to tie the score at 1-1.

Less than two minutes later, the Terrapins again took the lead, when Megan Frazer scored on a penalty corner.

UNC coach Karen Shelton called a timeout and pulled goalkeeper Jackie Kintzer in favor of an additional field player, and the gamble paid off three minutes later when senior Illse Davids took a pass from junior Katelyn Falgowski and fired from the center of the circle to tie the game.

With Kintzer back in the cage, the game was headed toward overtime before Forword's score in the closing seconds. The goal, her career-high 17th of the season, was assisted by Falgowski and redshirt freshman Caitlin Van Sickle.