No. 12 Tar Heels Travel To William & Mary Friday

No. 12 North Carolina will hit the road for its first true road match of the year as they head to Williamsburg, Va., to take on William & Mary on Friday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. After finishing the Carolina Nike Classic with a 1-0 win over ETSU and a tough 1-0 loss against No. 2 Indiana, the Heels will look to get back in the win column Friday before coming back home for games against Jacksonville and Pittsburgh next Monday and Saturday, respectively. You can follow the William & Mary match via live stream, live stats or follow along on Twitter.

Carolina Travels to William & Mary

• No. 12 North Carolina will travel to Williamsburg on Friday, Aug. 31 to take on William & Mary as the two sides meet for the 19th time with the Tar Heels holding a 14-2-2 advantage.

• Over the last 5 matches, the two sides are 3-1-1 with the tie coming in 2015 in and the loss in 2013, both in Chapel Hill.

• Last season the Tar Heels pulled out a 3-2 thriller as Alan Winn scored a brace, including the game-winner in the 73rd minute off assists from Mauricio Pineda and Cam Lindley.

• The only loss for the Tar Heels in Williamsburg came in 1996 when William & Mary took down UNC 4-0.

Carolina Starts The Season 1-1

• No. 12 North Carolina kicked off the 2018 campaig with the Carolina Nike Classic taking down ETSU 1-0 and falling to No. 2 Indiana 1-0.

• Over the two games, Carolina outshot its oppo nents 21-10 overall and 8-5 on goal.

• Against Indiana, the Tar Heels held the Hoosiers to only 3 shots, the fewest in one game for the Hoosiers since 2004. They also outshot Indiana 9-1 in the first half, which is more total shots than the Tar Heels registered in last years NCAA Men's College Cup Semifinal when they finished the game with 8 total shots.

DECADE OF DOMINANCE

• Over the last 10 seasons (2008-2017), UNC leads all other programs in the following:

- NCAA Championship wins: 23

- Sweet 16 Appearances: 9

- Elite 8 Appearances: 8

- Men's College Cup Appearances: 6

MAC Hermann Watch List

• Alex Comsia was named to the Mac Hermann Trophy Preseason Watch List after helping lead the Tar Heels to back-to-back College Cups.

• Comsia led the team in minutes played (1977) last year while starting all 22 games for UNC.

Pieters Header Lifts Tar Heels Over ETSU

• Jelani Pieters 79th minute goal lifted the Tar Heels over ETSU in the season opener on Friday, August 24.

• The goal was Pieters 5th game-winning goal of his career after tying for the team lead with 4 last season.

Winning Ways In Season Openers

• The Tar Heels are now 10-1 in their last 11 season openers, with the only loss coming to Akron (eventual national champions) in 2010.

Carolina Drops Out Of Top 10

• For the first time in 46 weeks (since the start of the 2015 season) the Tar Heels have dropped out of the top 10 in the United Soccer Coaches poll.

• After beating ETSU and falling to No. 2 Indiana to start the season, the Heels fell to No. 12 in the USC poll.

• Carolina is still in the top 10 in College Soccer News (4), Soccer America (4) and TopDrawerSoccer (6).

Stingy Defense

• Against No. 2 Indiana, the Tar Heels held the Hoosiers to 3 total shots, the least amount in any game for Indiana in 2004.

• So far in two games, Carolina has only given up five shots on goal and 10 total shots.

U.S. Soccer College Program Champions

• North Carolina claimed the inaugural U.S. Soccer Spring College Program championship with after going undefeated in five games.

• Carolina went 5-0 on the spring season and outscored its opponents 13-2.

North Carolina Spring Results:

UNC 4, Clemson 1

UNC 4, Georgetown 0

UNC 2, Virginia 1

UNC 2, Wake Forest 0

UNC 1, Duke 0

Second Half Team

• In 2017, Carolina outscored its opponents 31-9 in the second half, including 6-2 in the postseason.

Veteran Core

• The Tar Heels return 8 players from last years NCAA College Cup team that played at least 1,000 minutes, including Alex Comsia, Mauricio Pineda and John Nelson who all finished top 3 in minutes played last year.

Healthy And Ready To Go

• Carolina gets two big pieces back for the 2018 season in Nils Bruening and Drew Murphy

• Nils missed all of last season due to injury but in 2016 he finished second on the team in points (17) and led the team in goals with 8.

• Murphy has dealt with injuries over the last two season in Chapel Hill, but when heatlhy has provided key moments for the Tar Heels. In 2016 his game-winning goal against Providence sent the Tar Heels to the NCAA College Cup.

Perfect Preseason

• Carolina went 3-0 in preseason exhibition games defeating Coastal Carolina 4-0, Stetson 4-1 and Presbyterian 2-1.

• Since the start of the start of the spring season, Carolina is now 8-0 and has outscored its opponents 23-4.

2018 ACC Title Favorite

• For the second consecutive year, the Tar Heels are favored to claim the 2018 ACC title, claiming 10 of the possible 12 votes from the leagues head coaches.

• Carolina is also favored to claim its fourth consecutive Coastal Division title.

Top 5.....AGAIN

• Carolina has been tabbed one of the top 5 teams in the country in the preseason polls 9 of the last 10 seasons. The only year they weren't, TopDrawerSoccer voted them preseason No. 6 in 2014.

• So far this season, the Tar Heels are No. 2 in Soccer American, No. 3 in United Soccer Coaches and College Soccer News and No. 4 in TopDrawerSoccer.

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Players Mentioned

Nils Bruening

Alex Comsia

Cam Lindley

Drew Murphy

John Nelson

Jelani Pieters

Mauricio Pineda

Alan Winn