The North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I soccer. North Carolina is one of the most successful women's college soccer team, having won 22 of the 35 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, and 21 of the 42 NCAA national championships. The team has participated in every NCAA tournament.

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, 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. 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.

All-time record

Players

Current roster

Individual honors

National Coach of the Year: ACC Coach of the Year: Hermann Trophy: ACC Player of the Year: ACC Defensive Player of the Year: ACC Offensive Player of the Year: ACC Rookie of the Year: NCAA Tournament MVP: Offensive Player of the NCAA Tournament: Defensive Player of the Tournament: 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.

Notable alumnae

Honours

National

Conference