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North Carolina was already threatening to score in the fifth minute of the match, when the Tar Heel attackers passed the ball around the perimeter of the box to find a shooting lane. The ball ended up with Avery Patterson on the left side, where she made a quick move inward, shaking free of Jenna Tivnan, and sending a hooked shot to the top right corner of the goal. But SU keeper Shea Vanderbosch dove to hit the ball out with both hands.

Maddie Dahlien collected the rebound from Vanderbosch’s save and sent a cross into the 18, where Julia Dorsey gained possession and tapped to Ally Sentnor at the corner of the goalie box. Sentnor sent a missile directly at Vanderbosch, who swatted the ball up and out of bounds. The SU goalie picked up two saves in 30 seconds as the Orange gained possession. 

Vanderbosch got consistent action throughout the first half as the No. 3 Tar Heels (8-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) kept constant pressure on Syracuse (7-3-1, 0-2 ACC). The SU goalie collected eight saves, allowing one goal on 19 shots en route to the 1-0 loss to UNC. Vanderbosch leads the ACC in save percentage (.872) and has built on a freshman season that started after the injury of senior keeper Michaela Walsh. This was her highest save total of the year. She also recorded five in her first showing against UConn. Of those eight saves, Vanderbosch laid out for four of them, blocking the ball with outstretched arms.

“She is so good at shot-stopping her feet or so fast,” SU head coach Nicky Adams said. “Her ability to get up and down is so quick. It’s one of the main reasons we recruited her.”

Eight minutes into the second half, Vanderbosch snuffed out another potential scoring opportunity for UNC, this time a one-on-one breakaway run. While Sentnor was battling with Kate Murphy down the right sideline, Vanderbosch ran up and tackled the ball at the corner of the 18, taking down both players in the process. 

Even when Vanderbosch gave up her only goal of the match, she still got her hands on the ball. Moments beforehand, the freshman had made a lunging stop with her left foot on a close-range shot from Patterson, and the ball went out of bounds. The corner kick led to Vanderbosch trying to knock the ball down, but it got away from her and her diving attempt wasn’t in time to smother the ball. Tori Dellaperuta took the rebound and fired into an open net with her left foot for the match’s only score.

“She’s going to beat herself up tremendously about the goal,” Adams said.“People forget about the ten saves before that… Carolina is very good at getting in line and serving balls. And I thought she was fantastic being able to punch them up.”

Vanderbosch came up with her third diving save of the night in the 74th minute. Bella Sember sent a low ball to the right corner from the top of the 18. Vanderbosch went full extension to get both hands on the ball, and it deflected out of bounds.

“We have so much confidence in Shea,” defender Jenna Tivnan said. “We try to give her the easiest shots that we can… (the Tar Heels) are going to get shots off and you have to have confidence in your keeper to stop those near-post shots, stop the far away ones, and be there for the miraculous saves every once in a while.”

Published on September 22, 2022 at 10:38 pm

Contact Wyatt: wbmiller@syr.edu