North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer

The UNC women's soccer team began as a club team established by students looking for high level competition. In 1979, they petitioned the UNC Athletic Director, Bill Cobey, to take the club to the varsity level. Cobey asked Anson Dorrance, then the UNC men's soccer coach to assess the club's ability to transition to varsity status. Dorrance was impressed enough by the club, then coached by Mike Byers, to recommend that the school form a women's soccer team. Cobey agreed and hired Dorrance as head coach, with Byers as an assistant, for the 1978 season. That year, the Tar Heels played an essentially club schedule, including games against high school teams. However, in 1979, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, at the prompting of Dorrance and University of Colorado coach, Chris Lidstone, established a national women's soccer program.[4] At the time, UNC had the only varsity women's soccer team in the Southeast and this allowed Dorrance to recruit the top talent in the region. In 1981, he recruited one of the most talented freshman squads in the history of women's soccer. Eight of those recruits won starting positions and took the team to the first, and only, AIAW national championship. This group would set the tone for Tar Heels soccer for down through its history. As Dorrance recalls it, "These were the true pioneers. They were given nothing. They were accustomed to taking things and so they weren't as genteel as the sort of young ladies we can recruit now. . . They were the sort of girls who would go downtown, burn it to the ground, . . . But then, they were on time for every single practice and in practice they worked themselves until they were bleeding and throwing up. They had a tremendous commitment to victory and to personal athletic excellence. And for that I admired them because they were a tremendous group. And even though, off the field, I think they all hated each other. But once the game began, there was a collective fury that just intimidated everyone they played against."[5] Building on that competitive drive, the Tar Heels went on to win the first three NCAA championships, and dominate the sport for years to come.

Updated August 14, 2019[6]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 0 GK Claudia Dickey 1 FW Madison Schultz 3 FW Ru Mucherera 4 FW Bridgette Andrzejewski 5 MF Mary Elliot McCabe 6 FW Taylor Otto 7 DF Julia Dorsey 8 MF Brianna Pinto 9 MF Rachel Dorwart 10 MF Rachel Jones 11 MF Emily Fox 12 FW Alexis Strickland 13 FW Isabel Cox 14 MF Morgan Goff 15 FW Zoe Redei 16 FW Aleigh Gambone

No. Position Player 17 GK Marz Josephson 18 MF Natalie Chandler 19 FW Alessia Russo 20 MF Libby Moore 21 MF Miah Araba 22 DF Tori Hansen 23 DF Lotte Wubben-Moy 25 DF Maycee Bell 26 FW Hallie Klanke 27 DF Lois Joel 28 MF Maggie Pierce 30 DF Brooke Bingham 45 MF Cameron Keating 52 FW Izzy Brown 99 MF Laura Sparling

National Coach of the Year:

• Anson Dorrance – 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006

ACC Coach of the Year:

• Anson Dorrance – 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2018, 2019

Mia Hamm won numerous awards with the Tar Haeels

Hermann Trophy:

• Shannon Higgins – 1989
• Kristine Lilly – 1991
• Mia Hamm – 1992, 1993
• Tisha Venturini – 1994
• Cindy Parlow – 1997, 1998
• Cat Reddick – 2003
• Crystal Dunn – 2012

ACC Player of the Year:

• Mia Hamm – 1990, 1992, 1993
• Cindy Parlow – 1998

ACC Defensive Player of the Year:

• Crystal Dunn – 2013

Yael Averbuch, ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2006

ACC Offensive Player of the Year:

• Heather O'Reilly – 2005
• Yael Averbuch – 2006
• Crystal Dunn – 2013
• Alessia Russo – 2018

ACC Rookie of the Year:

• Tisha Venturini – 1991
• Cindy Parlow – 1995
• Laurie Schwoy – 1996
• Lindsay Tarpley – 2002
• Maycee Bell - 2019

NCAA Tournament MVP:

• April Heinrichs – 1984 (last year overall MVP named)

Offensive Player of the NCAA Tournament:

• April Heinrichs – 1985, 1986
• Kristine Lilly – 1989, 1990
• Mia Hamm – 1992, 1993
• Tisha Venturini – 1994
• Debbie Keller – 1996
• Robin Confer – 1997
• Susan Bush – 1999
• Meredith Florance – 2000
• Heather O'Reilly – 2003, 2006
• Kealia Ohai – 2012

Defensive Player of the Tournament:

• Suzy Cobb – 1983
• Carla Overbeck – 1988
• Tracy Bates – 1989
• Tisha Venturini – 1991
• Staci Wilson – 1994
• Nel Fettig – 1996
• Siri Mullinix – 1997
• Lorrie Fair – 1999
• Cat Reddick – 2000, 2003
• Robyn Gayle – 2006
• Satara Murray – 2012

First Team All-America Selection: As of 2011, North Carolina had 70 players gain first-team All-American recognition. The next two schools with the greatest number of All-Americans were tied with twenty-two each.[7]

Tisha Venturini

Mia Hamm

Sarina Wiegman

Kristine Lilly

Heather O'Reilly

Meghan Klingenberg

Lori Chalupny

Whitney Engen

Lucy Bronze

Katie Bowen

Tobin Heath

Crystal Dunn

Kendall Fletcher

Ashlyn Harris

Allie Long

Jessica McDonald

• Official website