Towson started its season off in disappointing fashion, losing to No. 5 North Carolina (1-0) in Chapel Hill 9-6 in a tightly contested game.

Graduate attack Jackie LaMonica and sophomore attack Sarah Maloof, who each scored two goals and had one assist, led the Tiger’s (0-1) offense.

On the defensive side, sophomore goalie Kelsea Donnelly had eight saves in her first collegiate start.

Award-winning defenseman Alexa Demski had a strong game with three ground balls.

“We really competed throughout the entire game and in the end we only lost due to our own errors,” Demski said. “Knowing that we can compete and stick with a top five team is a great confidence booster to start out the season. I think that all over the field and our sidelines that our energy level was amazing.”

When asked what the team could take away from the loss, Demski noted that limiting their turnovers would help.

“I think that we can improve on our clearing and our ball handling skills in between the 30’s,” she said. “We played awesome defense throughout the game and when we had the ball on our low attacking end we kept composure and put the ball in the back of the net. Now we just need to focus on taking advantage of the opportunities we are given and get the ball down the field safely and without turning it over.”

The Tigers committed 23 turnovers compared to just 16 from the Tar Heels.

After giving up an early 4-0 lead to UNC, including three goals from senior Kara Cannizzaro, Towson fought back and outscored the Tar Heels 6-5 the rest of the game.

However, Cannizzaro’s four-goal performance was too much for the Tigers to handle.

Cannizzaro now has 100 career goals for UNC.

“We have a real resilient group this year and it’s exciting to see,” Head Coach Sonia LaMonica said. “We’re going to be playing plenty of top teams this year, so we just need to stay focused and stay positive.”

Towson will use the upcoming week to work on limiting some of its mistakes that cost them against UNC, including clearing the ball better, according to LaMonica.

“Something we can improve on is our clearing game,” she said. “We had a lot of chances against North Carolina to capitalize, but we ended just being our own worst enemy.

It’s time to re-focus and get ready for Georgetown. We have to maintain this intensity and try coming out on top.”

Towson was only 12-20 on clearing attempts in the game.The Tigers look to get their first victory of the season in their next game against Georgetown (1-0) on Saturday.

Faceoff from Washington, D.C. is set for 1 p.m.