Tar Heels To Open 2018 At JMU

CHAPEL HILL—The University of North Carolina women's lacrosse team will open its 2018 regular season on Saturday February 10 at James Madison. The Tar Heels and Dukes will take the opening draw at noon at Sentara Park in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Tar Heels are ranked No. 3 in the nation in both the IWLCA coaches poll and the Cascade media poll. JMU is No. 16 and No. 17, respectively, in the same polls.

Carolina went 17-3 in 2017, reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. UNC went 6-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play to win its third consecutive ACC regular season title, then later won the ACC Tournament for the second year in a row.

The Tar Heels were picked as the preseason ACC favorite for 2018 once again and boast four preseason All-ACC picks in midfielder Marie McCool, attacker Ela Hazar, midfielder Maggie Bill and defender Erin Kelly.

Carolina-JMU Series
• Carolina leads the all-time series with James Madison, 6-2, and has won five games in a row in the series (wins in 2001, 2002, 2015, 2016 and 2017).
• Last year, these two teams opened the season against each other with UNC winning, 16-14. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Chapel Hill but was moved to Raleigh, N.C., due to a water crisis in Chapel Hill.

Three Preseason All-Americas
• North Carolina seniors Marie McCool, Ela Hazar and Maggie Bill all grabbed spots on Inside Lacrosse's 2018 Preseason All-America teams, the magazine announced on Tuesday afternoon.

• McCool, a midfielder, earned first-team honors, while Hazar, and attacker, and Bill, a midfielder, were on the second team. Redshirt sophomore defender Erin Kelly was an honorable mention choice. McCool, one of five finalists for the 2017 Tewaaraton Award, is already a two-time, first-team All-America and was the youngest member of the 2017 United States National Team that won a gold medal at the World Cup in England. McCool also is the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's lacrosse.

• Hazar set a UNC record with 40 assists last season, earning third-team All-America honors along the way. She enters the season ranked fifth in school history with 74 assists and needs just 19 more to break the Carolina career mark held by Becky Lynch.

• Bill missed the second half of the 2017 season due to a knee injury but earned second-team All-America honors the year before in 2016.

Tar Heels Top Preseason ACC Poll
• The Atlantic Coast Conference women's lacrosse coaches have picked North Carolina as the favorite to win its fourth consecutive ACC regular season championship in 2018.

• The ACC released its preseason poll on Wednesday, and the Tar Heels narrowly edged Syracuse for the top spot. Carolina finished with 59 points in the voting, including four first-place votes. The Orange tallied 53 points in the poll and two first-place votes. Boston College also garnered two first-place votes and was third with 48 points. Virginia (39 points) was fourth in the preseason poll, followed by No. 5 Notre Dame (37), No. 6 Duke (23), No. 7 Virginia Tech (19) and No. 8 Louisville (10).

• Tar Heels led also the way as the conference also named the 2018 preseason All-ACC Team. Four Carolina players grabbed spots on the 16-member team: senior midfielder Marie McCool, senior attacker Ela Hazar, senior midfielder Maggie Bill and sophomore defender Erin Kelly.

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Players Mentioned

Maggie Bill

Ela Hazar

Erin Kelly

Marie McCool

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University of North Carolina Athletics