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14 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 Murphy leads Tar Heels in lopsided win Forward earns 4 assists in first half BY BRIAN MACPHERSON SPORTS EDITOR With the game’s outcome never in doubt, the reserves of the No. 1 North Carolina womens soccer team got their chance to shine Wednesday. And shine they did, with forward Leea Murphy leading the way. The sophomore WOMEN'S SOCCER Guilford 0 UNC 9 assisted on the team's first four goals as the Tar Heels cruised to a 9-0 vic tory against Guilford at Fetzer Field. “We strung some great stuff together,” said freshman Heather O’Reilly. “(We) had some great speed of play, even though teams like that always don’t push you to the max of your speed of play.” JR''']/* On our team, ideas get noticed. Jfft^ \ MM B flf m M Here, it’s merit we turn to. We’re not interested in how old you are or where \w B MM M you’re from. If your idea is good, it’s good. That’s why we’ll put you alongside W B MM M teammates with the experience and knowledge to spot it. It’s your time to shine. Quality In Everything We Do UNC (7-0) struck quickly junior Mary McDowell took a pass from Murphy and tucked a low shot inside the far post less than two minutes into the game. Five minutes later, Murphy found a wide-open Anne Morrell for UNC’s second goal, and the rout was on. Murphys fourth assist came just 16 minutes into the game, and it left her just one shy of the school record for assists in the game. “I was definitely not thinking about records,” she said. “I’m not the record-setting kind.” A Tar Heel who likely will be the record-setting kind, though, made her first mark on UNC history on Wednesday. O’Reilly entered the game late in the first half and redirected a cross into the net almost immediately to give the Tar Heels a 5-0 lead. She has been recovering since June from a leg injury suffered in U.S. National Team action. Sports “We ... had some great speed of play, even though teams like that don’t always push you to the max of your speed of play.” HEATHER O'REILLY, FRESHMAN FORWARD “My injury made it a tough few weeks for me, but I am getting bet ter every week,” she said. “To final ly get this first goal, it’s a little ice breaker for me. Hopefully, I’ll have some more this season.” O’Reilly, Morrell and freshman Elizabeth Guess each finished with two goals for North Carolina. Such a lopsided result paid div idends for the Tar Heels players that rarely see field time played for most of the game. “We got to play our roster,” said UNC coach Anson Dorrance. “For some girls, that was their first per formance tonight. And that’s always exciting.” The game also gave the Tar Heels a chance to focus on skills with the added benefit of not fur ther embarrassing the Quakers (3- 4). After Guess extended UNC’s lead to 9-0 just seven minutes into the second half, the Tar Heels ceased shooting. The rest of the game resembled ball-control drills more than actual competition, as the North Carolina players advanced and retreated at will. “We did a lot of good things,” Murphy said. “We moved the ball around and we did get something good out of this game." Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu. DTH/ANDREW SYNOWIEZ North Carolina forward Leea Murphy (left) took advantage of her first career start in Wednesday's game. The sophomore had four assists. tThr Imlg (Tar liprf Reddick ready to seize the spotlight Senior to make World Cup debut BY CHRIS GILFILLAN ASSISTANT SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - With an exaggerated hand-jive butterflv bounce, Catherine Reddick celebrated after her left footed shot tagged the crossbar 30 yards away to win a ritual post practice competition on Tuesday. Her only reward was bragging rights and a Starbucks coffee from equipment manager James Armstrong, whose shot just missed the target. But she went at that crossbar, do or die. Now, imagine what the youngest player on the U.S. National Team will do in her Women’s World Cup debut Sunday. For her and the rest of the team, Reddick’s experience is not an issue, although the North Carolina senior has never played in a World Cup game. But as a Tar Heel on the team, she is not alone. Assistant coach Bill Palladino is also an assistant at UNC, and six of her teammates are former Tar Heels. So one might ask: What does this college senior bring to the U.S. team that the pros don’t? The answer is the long shot, as she proved in her post-practice competition. “The first thing I noticed about Catherine was how calm she was with the ball,” said fellow defender Kate Sobrero. “She’s very confident and she doesn’t freak 0ut.... Plus, she can kick the ball a mile and she’s great in the air.” Reddick has a chance to start on a defensive line that is headlined by World Cup veterans Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett. Reddick’s versatility might be her greatest asset. At age 16, she changed from attacking midfield er to defender —a transition Palladino himself oversaw. Now, at 21, she’s versatile enough to play either left, right or middle defender. “Obviously, at that age she was a little raw,” Palladino said. “(She) had some development to do, and she just kept getting better and better and better.... Mentally, she understands the game real well defensively, and she’s really gone to anew level.” The only Tar Heel on defense is goalkeeper Siri Mullinix, though four other North Carolina alum nae are on the team. “It’s something special,” Mullinix said. “And playing with that pro gram, I think once you played, you become sort of like a family.” With the World Cup just around the corner, Reddick will have to prove that she’s able to play at a professional level despite still being in college —and the intensi ty will be much higher on the national stage than it is at the post-practice game. “I’ve been earning their respect as I go,” Reddick said. “I think that now that we’re at the World Cup stage, they’re like,‘This is the World Cup; no one’s young, we’re all the same.’” And all dances aside, this senior will play with that same do-or-die passion. Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
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