Respected leader: Brownsville grad Dellarose named a captain as junior on UNC soccer team
Photo courtesy of Go Heels
Tessa Dellarose has clearly earned the respect of her teammates in her junior year playing for the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team.
The Brownsville graduate was named one of three team captains, along with a pair of seniors, before the season.
The 20-year-old daughter of Ron and Melinda Dellarose is proud of that distinction.
“It means a lot, especially being a junior,” Dellarose said. “It definitely is a big honor. We vote on captains so your teammates vote you in. Just knowing they respect me enough to put my name down as someone to lead the team … I’m grateful for that.”
Dellarose has earned her stripes with the Tar Heels as a defender. She stepped right into a key role as a freshman when she played in 23 games and made 21 starts, averaging 57 minutes per match. She was named to the 2022 ACC All-Freshman Team, the All-ACC Third Team and All-Academic Team.
She earned a spot on the All-Academic Team again her sophomore season when she was one of nine Tar Heels to play in all 23 matches and scored her first collegiate goal to go along with two assists. North Carolina’s defense allowed just eight goals in ACC play to lead the conference.
This year Dellarose already has two goals and an assist for a career high five points. She scored her team’s first goal of the season in a 2-1 win over Denver and broke a scoreless tie against Arizona with a second-half goal in the 76th minute on Sunday in a 2-0 victory.
“It feels really good when you score a goal,” Dellarose said. “I don’t get to do it a lot so when it happens it’s a really awesome feeling, honestly. It’s just one of those things that once it’s in you’ll have that forever. That’s a really nice thing to know that I’ll always be down as having scored the first goal of the season this year.”
Dellarose recalled both of her goals this season.
“In the first game I was playing midfield and kind of just following the play, traveling up the field,” Dellarose said. “Our attackers were trying to make things happen and the ball just popped out around the 25-30 yard line. I thought well I have a little bit of space, I’m just going to go for a shot.
“That’s what I did and it worked out pretty well. I put it in the top corner to the goalkeeper’s left.”
Dellarose blasted her second goal into the top-left corner from 18 yards out.
“It was a tough fight against Arizona,” Dellarose said. “They were an organized team, and gave us a little bit of trouble finding the back of the net for a majority of the game.
“I just saw the ball pop out after we had taken a corner kick, and happened to be in good position to receive it. I saw I had some space to my left, so I took a touch to get it on my left and just took the shot. If it wasn’t on target, I was just hoping we could get a second chance inside the box, but it went in thankfully.”
Dellarose looked back at her North Carolina career so far.
“I remember my first year I didn’t know exactly what to expect coming from a small town and a small high school into one of the best and biggest programs in the country for women’s college soccer,” Dellarose said. “There’s not anything you can really do to prepare for that. So I just wanted to control my controlables and come in as best prepared as possible. I think I started off well with just being very fit and being on top of my game.”
Dellarose made a strong impression before her freshman year even began by recording an all-time team best 57 on the beep test which measures a player’s fitness level.
“I think that got me off on the right foot for my freshman year,” Dellarose said. “I played a lot of minutes, started a lot of games and just played my role and did what I could for the team.
“My sophomore year was kind of the same thing. I came in with the same fitness level and hopefully improved my skill level and was just happy to play my role and do what I could to help the team.
“The first two years taught me a lot of lessons that I have carried into the start of this season that have prepared me for the leadership role that I’m taking on now.”
Dellarose has played on the international stage as well and was on the 2023 U.S. U-20 Women’s Youth National Team.
“I started my international career with the under-16 team four years ago and have been with various age groups on different teams since then,” Dellarose said. “I’ve been with the U-18 and the U-19 and most recently I was with the U-20s a little bit earlier in the year just playing a few friendlies with that squad.
“It’s definitely a top-level experience, bringing in girls from the pro level now and the top of the college game. It keeps you on your toes. Iron sharpens iron so it’s a great experience every time I’m with them.”
The Tar Heels have won 21 NCAA championships and 22 ACC titles but haven’t added to those totals in the past two years. They finished as the national runner-up in 2022 with a 20-5-1 record and were 13-2-8 last year when they fell in the NCAA quarterfinals.
This year’s UNC team is the most inexperienced one Dellarose has been a part of.
“We had a lot of turnover from last year so we have a lot of new players coming in,” Dellarose said. “Almost half of our team is new. So one of the preseason goals was just to make sure we’re on the same page, that we’re meshing and gelling together well and continuing to improve our team play game by game.
“I think goal-wise for the team, you come to the University of North Carolina to win national championships and win ACC championships, so that’s still forefront in our minds. But most importantly we just want to take it game by game and make sure that we win the game in front of us.
“We’ve had a good start to the season so far. We have a lot to build off of and still a lot to improve on.”