Herald-Sun correspondent
WINSTON-SALEM -- North Carolina's field hockey team is going back to the national championship.
Danielle Forword, Taryn Gjurich and Elizabeth Drazdowski scored goals for the Tar Heels as they edged Virginia 3-2 in Friday's second semifinal at Wake Forest's Kentner Stadium.
After winning the championship in 2007, UNC missed the national semifinals last year in Louisville, Ky.
Now, the Tar Heels will go after their sixth national championship on Sunday against ACC foe Maryland (noon, CBS College Sports Network). Maryland won the first game 7-5 over Prince-ton.
It will be the ninth time teams from the ACC have played for the championship, the most recent in 2006 when Maryland defeated Wake Forest 4-2 at Kentner Stadium.
Forword, a senior from East London, South Africa, said it's going to be fun to play in her second championship.
"I said to [Melanie Brill] while we were stretching after the game, I said 'What an honor to play in two national championship games in your career, four years,' " Forword said. "To play in one is just magical. I think it's exciting, because we've been here before and we know how much we want it."
With their semifinal win, the Tar Heels (19-2) won the rubber game with the Cavaliers (20-4). UNC won the regular-season game 2-1 in overtime, but the Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament semifinal 1-0 two weeks ago in Charlottesville, Va.
UNC took a 1-0 lead at halftime after Forword converted a penalty corner off an assist from Katelyn Falgowski at 22:59. Virginia tied it at 47:03 after Traci Ragukas slid a shot past goalkeeper Jackie Kintzer.
The Tar Heels took a 3-1 lead after goals by Gjurich (50:44) and Drazdowski (53:24).
However, Virginia roared right back and Paige Selenski scored her 27th goal off an assist from Inga Stockel at 59:23 on a penalty corner.
"I don't know if they changed anything other than a mindset," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. When you get down two goals and it's the national semifinals, you don't have much to save it for. So I think, obviously, if you've got a 3-1 lead, [your mindset is] 'Let's hold on' and their mindset is 'It's do or die.'
"I think they really did a nice job of putting pressure on us. Fortunately, we held tough."
The Cavaliers pushed and had four penalty corners from the eight-minute mark until the three-minute mark.
"I think it was a tale of two halves," Shelton said. "I think we dominated the first half, but I think they certainly put a lot of pressure on us in the second half."
Madison said the Cavs, who held a slight 8-7 advantage in penalty corners, just didn't capitalize on those opportunities.
"We had corners. We were not able to put one in," Madison said. "We ran the option on another one to Paige [Selenski], but the goalkeeper played well and you just have to put it in when you get the chance."
