CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - In the last game of the 2016 season, Appalachian State University field hockey fumbled to No. 5 North Carolina 9-1 on Sunday at the Francis E. Henry Stadium. Melissa Nobile scored App's only goal of the afternoon.

In the first 18 minutes of the half, the Mountaineers (1-15) countered many of UNC's attacks. Goalkeeper Rachel Gaines kicked away many Tar Heel shot attempts, and the defensive front broke up many of UNC's plays. App State's defense appeared to put a hold on the No. 5 team in the country until Eva van't Hoog scored the first goal of the match to give UNC (15-4, 3-3 ACC) the 1-0 lead. Then in the 27th minute, Catherine Hayden received a pass from Eef Andriessen to raise the ACC team's advantage to 2-0. 

The Tar Heels continued to control the ball on Appalachian's side of the pitch, but no one could strike up any more offensive plays until the very last ticks of the half when Ashley Hoffman capitalized off of UNC's sixth penalty corner to end the period up by three.

The majority of the first half was played on App State's side of the 50 yard-line, which prevented Appalachian from creating anything offensively. On the other hand, the 2015 NCAA Runners-up fired 20 shots with 11 shots on goal.

The Tar Heels began the second half quickly with two back-to-back goals 62 seconds apart in the first four minutes. After nine minutes of play, Catherine Hayden would strike again darting in the ball past the heels of Gaines to push North Carolina's lead to 6-0.

After not seeing North Carolina's side of the pitch for 50 minutes, Nobile broke through for Appalachian scoring her sixth goal of the season to bring UNC's lead down a bit, but Eef Andriessen responded to Nobile's goal with one of her own to bring back UNC's six-goal lead. 

Then with 20 minutes to go, UNC netted two more goals to run away with the match and snag the 9-1 victory.

Offense

UNC had a record-breaking day producing their highest scoring game since 2013 with nine goals, 34 shots, 22 shots on goal and ten penalty corners.

Appalachian did not have many encounters with the ball offensively due to North Carolina's dominant performance. App State only administered two shots, one shot from Micaela Diedericks and the other from Nobile's goal, and did not receive any penalty corner opportunities.

At Net

Gaines put her body on the line for every shot the Tar Heels presented to her and came out with 13 saves in 70:00 minutes. Her match against UNC is her second-best performance of the season, behind her 19-save game on Oct. 1 versus Pacific.

Season Stats

As a whole, the Mountaineers accumulated 23 goals, 65 points, 145 shots, 89 shots on goal, 19 assists, 129 saves, ten defensive saves, 70 penalty corners and averaged 1.4 goals scored per game. 

Individually, the freshman from New Jersey, Nobile, collected the most goals of the season (six) and recorded App's only game-winning goal against LIU on Sept. 4. Following Nobile are Taylor Cimbalist (five goals), Ali Williams (three goals) and Rebecca McLean (three goals).

Jordan Van Cleave smacked the most shots on the season with 31 while Cimbalist came in second with 30. In shots on goal, Cimbalist grabbed the lead with 21 SOG for her junior year and Van Cleave finished her senior campaign with 16 SOG.

In points and assist, two athletes tied for each No. 1 spot. Cimbalist and Nobile both collected 14 points on the season, and Cimbalist and Savanna Sheridan dished out four assists apiece.

In the cage, Gaines rejected 119 shots on goal in 2016 and played for 1126:53 minutes.

In the record books, McLean tied for fifth in single-season defensive saves with three and Keighly Adams and Sheridan tied for ninth in single -season defensive saves with two.