No. 1 UNC outlasts No. 8 Virginia, 16-13

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 8 Virginia (5-2, 0-2 ACC) fell behind early and couldn’t overcome a first-half deficit, falling to No. 1 North Carolina (7-0, 1-0 ACC) on Thursday evening, 16-13, at Klöckner Stadium.

An illegal stick by UNC’s Zac Tucci gave UVA a three-minute full-time served extra-man possession to start the second quarter. UVA’s Peter Garno was saved early on during the Cavalier possession by UNC’s Collin Krieg. UNC turned the man-down situation into back-to-back goals during an 8-1 run that the forced the Cavaliers to play catchup all night.

UNC’s precision passing gave the Tar Heels an 11-4 lead at the half where eight of 11 goals were assisted. The Tar Heels led 3-2 after UVA’s Regan Quinn found nylon at 9:39 in the first on a Jeff Conner helper.

Nicky Solomon scored at 10:24 in the first to start the 8-1 UNC streak that was the turning point for the Tar Heels, which included the two man-down goals to start the second quarter. Solomon’s unassisted score with 2:40 left in the first half capped the run, giving UNC an 11-3 lead. Griffin Harris stopped the bleeding for the Cavaliers with 43 seconds left in the second quarter to send UVA into the intermission down by seven goals, 11-4.

Harris’ goal started a 5-1 UVA run that made it a four-goal game, 12-8, when Matt Moore scored an unassisted goal with 7:32 left in the third quarter. UNC scored back-to-back goals to make it 15-9 with 12:06 left to play when Matt Wright scored on a Brian Cameron helper.

UVA didn’t go away, scoring four goals in a row. The first two were assisted by Moore, who found Quinn and Connor Shellenberger. Conner scored his second on a Shellenberger assist, while Shellenberger capped the streak with an unassisted score with 1:35 left to play, cutting the UVA deficit to 15-13. UVA won the ensuing faceoff, but after UNC was flagged for pushing, Moore’s shot was saved by Krieg. UNC pushed transition and scored an empty-net goal to seal the victory with 10 seconds left.