Tar Heel Freshman Class Rated Best In The Nation

CHAPEL HILL—Inside Lacrosse has ranked the North Carolina women's lacrosse team's 2018 freshman class as the best in the nation, ILWomen.com announced this week. The Tar Heels boast the nation's top recruiting class for the second time in the last three years in the magazine's ratings.

The top 10 freshman classes for 2018, according to ILWomen, are No. 1 Carolina, No. 2 Princeton, No. 3 Maryland, No. 4 Syracuse, No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 6 Duke, No. 7 USC, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Penn and No. 10 Virginia.

ILWomen's top-rated attacker Jamie Ortega (Centereach, N.Y.) and its National High School Player of the Year Allison Mastroianni (Martinsville, N.J.) headline a Tar Heel freshman class that includes three of the top 15 individuals in the nation.

ILWomen ranks Ortega as the nation's No. 2 incoming freshman, followed by No. 3 Ortega and No. 15 Scottie Rose Growney, an attacker/midfielder from Conestoga, Pa. Other Tar Heel freshmen in the ILWomen rankings include No. 41 Taylor McDaniels, No. 46 Kayla Wood and No. 50 Katie Kotowski.

"We're obviously excited [for this class' arrival]," head coach Jenny Levy told ILWomen. "Our team is going to have a much different look this year with a pretty big graduating group. First of all, there's a lot of returning players that are looking forward to stepping in and filling some really big shoes that we lost to graduation. This class, in particular, the 2017s, they've been a really tight, dynamic class from the get-go. There's different types of talent, different types of personality. They are hungry.

"This class, they're confident. They're skilled, and they're super humble with a really great work ethic."

The Tar Heels open their fall schedule on Sept. 30.

2018 NORTH CAROLINA WOMEN'S LACROSSE FRESHMEN
Scottie Rose Growney (Midfielder, Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga)
Katie Kotowski (Attacker, Lloyd Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor)
Allison Mastroianni (Midfielder, Martinsville, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan)
Taylor McDaniels (Attacker, Monrovia, Md./Good Counsel)
Claire Nappi (Midfielder/Defender, Downingtown, Pa./Academy of Notre Dame de Namur)
Jamie Ortega (Attacker, Centereach, N.Y./Middle Country)
Hannah Pope (Defender, Durham, N.C./Durham Academy)
Emma Trenchard (Midfielder/Defender, Windsor, Conn./Loomis Chaffee School)
Kayla Wood (Midfielder/Defender, Catonsville, Md./Catonsville)

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