North Carolina, the most dominant program in the history of college soccer (if not all college sports), last week wrapped up its first perfect ACC regular season in more than a decade. It also took the first step toward yet another conference tournament title. Yet in that same span of days, the Tar Heels saw their national championship aspirations suffer a potentially catastrophic blow.
Charles Dickens wrote a line about times like these.
Julia Ashley has played as big a role as anyone in No. 2 North Carolina's success thus far. Among the first players to rise to the challenge in the wake of the latest adversity, the senior defender is also the best reason to believe the season can still end in the College Cup in Cary, North Carolina.
The blow came early in the second half of the regular-season finale on Thursday against Wake Forest. With the game scoreless, North Carolina forward Alessia Russo and Wake Forest goalkeeper Nonie Frishette arrived at the edge of the 18-yard box at the same moment in pursuit of the ball. Russo's initial touch took the ball into the sliding keeper, whose momentum propelled her through the North Carolina player's legs. It didn't look particularly gruesome, but the outcome was. An England youth international and one of the best players in college soccer, Russo broke her leg. She will miss the remainder of the ACC tournament and all of the NCAA tournament.
Replacing Russo over the long run is daunting. The immediate challenge for the Tar Heels was finding a goal without her in the final 40 minutes against the Demon Deacons to maintain perfection. Whether or not it has been equaled or surpassed by the Pac-12, the ACC is a grind. Since North Carolina last went through the conference unbeaten and untied in 2006, only Virginia in 2013 duplicated that feat.
A back line headlined by Ashley and recent U.S. women's national team call-up Emily Fox wasn't likely to cede a goal -- the Tar Heels allowed just three in ACC play. But they still needed a goal of their own. With fewer than 20 minutes to play, Ashley obliged. A step inside the sideline and perhaps 40 yards from goal, she drove a long arcing cross that allowed Madison Schultz to pick up momentum before rising and heading it home from near the penalty spot.
Perfect regular season saved with a 1-0 win, Ashley and the Tar Heels then shut out an ACC opponent for the eighth time in a 2-0 win against Virginia Tech in Sunday's ACC tournament quarterfinal.
In the moment, Ashley's actions spoke louder than words. It turns out she's got both in her arsenal.
"She's a fabulous leader," coach Anson Dorrance said in the player's profile. "She's not afraid to hold people accountable, which is very rare in women's athletics. Even the great players are reluctant to hold teammates responsible, but I really respect Julia's strength as well as her leadership qualities, her heart, her hard-working nature and also her aerobic capacity."
And while Ashley, who has three goals and five assists this season as a right back, can continue to aid in creating scoring chances without Russo, the less tangible parts of her game are also instructive. It's not just her, of course. North Carolina's strength this season is surrounding international-caliber young talent -- Fox, Russo, Brianna Pinto and Taylor Otto, among the best examples -- with a large senior class comprised of both starters and role players. But in her second season as a captain, Ashley is also on pace to lead the Tar Heels in minutes for the second season in a row. That after playing the second-most minutes as a freshman and a sophomore.
It's not a stretch to say the team literally follows her lead on the field.
"Her vocal leadership is extraordinary," former North Carolina player Kate Morris told the Daily Tar Heel recently. "I've seen her countless times have the difficult conversations with players that needed to be had, and she doesn't have the fear to say how it is."
Despite the back line playing almost the entire season in a new 4-3-3 formation, a departure from Dorrance's trademark 3-4-3, North Carolina's defense has been its rock. Only USC and Georgetown have allowed fewer goals among ranked teams. As with any Tar Heels team, defense is also the product of the pressure applied by the waves of forwards and midfielders, but all of that relies on stability from that back line.
That defense will be all the more important without Russo in the postseason, even as left back Fox departs to join the national team for a November trip to Europe (she could return in time for the second or third round of the NCAA tournament, jet lag willing). It isn't easy for any team to carve out its own identity at North Carolina, but taking on the identity of a defender who will run all day and makes no excuses isn't a bad place to start.
"I'm not going to sort of burden this team with the tradition because I know what the tradition is," Dorrance said when the season began. "This is a tradition [that people interpret as] if you don't win the national championship, the season is a failure. So I'm not going to set those sorts of goals for this team. They get to set their own goals.
"And if they work really hard, their potential is outstanding."
That was the case in the regular season. And if Ashley is any indication, it remains the case still.