| Tessa Dellarose | |
| Full Name: | Tessa Elise Dellarose |
| Birth Date: | 2 April 2004[1] |
| Birth Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Height: | 5 ft 5 in |
| Position: | Left back, defensive midfielder[2] |
| Currentclub: | North Carolina Tar Heels |
| Clubnumber: | 34 |
| Collegeyears1: | 2022– |
| College1: | North Carolina Tar Heels |
| Collegecaps1: | 46 |
| Collegegoals1: | 1 |
| Years1: | – |
| Nationalyears1: | 2023–2024 |
| Nationalteam1: | United States U-20 |
| Nationalcaps1: | 8 |
| Nationalgoals1: | 1 |
| Nationalteam-Update: | April 7, 2024 |
Tessa Dellarose (born April 2, 2004) is an American college soccer player who plays as a left back or defensive midfielder for the North Carolina Tar Heels. She represented the United States at the under-20 level.
Dellarose was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Melinda and Ron Dellarose, and has two older siblings.[3] Her father played college baseball at Duquesne.[3] Dellarose was raised in Grindstone, Pennsylvania.[3] She played three seasons of high school soccer at Brownsville High School, where she became captain and set a school record with 108 career goals.[3] She committed to the University of North Carolina as a sophomore.[4] She sat out her senior high school season to play with her Pittsburgh Riverhounds academy club and the youth national team. She played for Racing Louisville of the amateur USL W League in the summers of 2022 and 2024.[5] [6] She also represented the US Women–sponsored team in the Soccer Tournament 2024. She scored the winning goal in the final game and was named the tournament's most valuable player.[7]
On her first day of preseason training with the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2022, Dellarose set a team record in the beep test (multi-stage fitness test) by reaching level 57, a mark she surpassed the next year at 63.[8] [9] She started almost every game of her freshman season, receiving All-ACC third team and ACC all-freshman honors, and helped North Carolina reach the national title game.[10] After being used mostly as a substitute in her sophomore year, she returned to the starting lineup as a junior in 2024, being named to the All-ACC third team.[3] [11]
Dellarose was called into training camp with the United States national under-16 team in 2020 and the under-20 team the following year.[12] [13] She appeared in all five games at the 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, where the United States finished runners-up.[10]