The North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

."2007 North Carolina Women's Soccer Media Guide."
''tarheelblue.com.'' Retrieved on March 23, 2009. North Carolina is one of the most successful women's college soccer teams, having won 22 of the 36

championships, and 23 of the 43 NCAA national championships. The team has participated in every NCAA tournament.''2024 Women's Record Book''
on goheels.com

History

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 Albert Anson Dorrance IV (born April 9, 1951) is a retired American soccer coach (sport), coach. He was the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer, women's soccer program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Uni ...

, 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 The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

, at the prompting of Dorrance and University of Colorado coach, Chris Lidstone, established a national women's soccer program. left, North Carolina Tar Heels celebrate winning the 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, Women's College Cup 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." 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.

Players

Current roster

All-time record

Team Honours

National

* NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament, NCAA Division I tournament (23): 1982,

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, 1986,

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, 1988,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, 1996, 1997,

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Conference

* Atlantic Coast tournament (22): 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2017, 2019

Individual honors

National Coach of the Year

– 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006

ACC Coach of the Year

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

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

* Shannon Higgins – 1989 * Kristine Lilly – 1991 *

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player, two-time Women's Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Haile ...

– 1992, 1993 * Tisha Venturini – 1994 * Cindy Parlow – 1997, 1998 * Cat Reddick – 2003 * Crystal Dunn – 2012 * Kate Faasse – 2024

ACC Player of the Year

– 1990, 1992, 1993 * Cindy Parlow – 1998

ACC Defensive Player of the Year

* Crystal Dunn – 2013

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 *

– 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 * Olivia Thomas – 2024

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 Lorraine Fair Allen (born Lorraine Ming Fair; August 5, 1978) is a retired United States, American professional sports, professional Association football, soccer midfielder who was a member of the World Cup Champion United States women's nationa ...

– 1999 * Cat Reddick – 2000, 2003 * Robyn Gayle – 2006 * Satara Murray – 2012 * Clare Gagne – 2024

First Team All-America Selection

As of 2011, North Carolina had 70 players gain first-team

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n recognition. The next two schools with the greatest number of All-Americans were tied with twenty-two each.

Retired numbers

19 –

, forward, 1989–1993. Number retired in 1994. * Although the university retired Hamm's #19 in 1994, it was later unretired and given to other players since.

Notable alumnae

* Emily Pickering * Tisha Venturini *

* 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 Ashlyn Michelle Harris (born October 19, 1985) is an American former Association football, soccer player. She represented the United States women's national soccer team, making her debut for the senior national team on March 11, 2013, and was ...

Allie Long Alexandra Linsley Long (born August 13, 1987) is an American soccer player who plays as a midfielder. She played for Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, and NJ/NY Gotham FC in the National Women's Soccer League, and represented the United S ...

* Jessica McDonald * Lotte Wubben-Moy * Alessia Russo * Meredith Florance * Lois Joel * Emily Fox * Rosalind Berhalter

References

External links

* {{Atlantic Coast Conference women's soccer navbox Soccer clubs in North Carolina NCAA Division I women's soccer teams Association football clubs established in 1979