Hazar's Eight Assists Lead Tar Heels To 18-13 Win At Northwestern

Saturday, March 17

Evanston, Ill.

1:00 PM ET (Noon CT)

North Carolina

6-2

Northwestern

5-3

North Carolina

Northwestern

Ela Hazar

Photo by: Mark Burch

Hazar's Eight Assists Lead Tar Heels To 18-13 Win At Northwestern

March 17, 2018 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Final Stats Photos

EVANSTON, ILL.—Ela Hazar had a record-setting day as fourth-ranked North Carolina (6-2) beat ninth-ranked Northwestern, 18-13, on Saturday afternoon at Martin Stadium. UNC outscored the Wildcats, 11-5, in the second half after Northwestern led, 8-7, at halftime.

Hazar had eight assists for the Tar Heels, besting the previous single-game UNC record of six set by Amy Fine in 1997 and tied by Sydney Holman in 2014. Hazar also became the school's career leader in the category with 98, passing Becky Lynch, who had 92 assists from 2009-12.

In addition to Hazar, the Tar Heels got big games from Katie Hoeg with four goals and three assists and Marie McCool with three goals, two assists and five draw controls. Jamie Ortega had three goals and an assist, Ally Mastroianni scored three times and Marisa DiVietro had two goals and an assist. Kara Klages, Gianna Bowe and Maggie Bill each scored once for the Tar Heels.

Northwestern (5-3) got four goals each from Selena Lasota and Claire Quinn.

"It was a very competitive game today," said UNC head coach Jenny Levy afterward. "e performed much better on the draw and defensive end in the second half. Offensively, we just needed to finish our opportunities, which we did better in the second half.

"It was a total team win—we got contributions from so many players on the field. The heart and fire we attacked the second half with was the margin of victory and we need to do this for 60 minutes next game."

With the victory, Carolina improved to 6-2 this season and won its third game in a row. The Wildcats fell to 5-3. The Tar Heels have won six of the last seven meetings in their series with Northwestern, including two in a row in Evanston.

Redshirt freshman Taylor Moreno started her third consecutive game in goal for Carolina and made eight saves while allowing eight goals in 29:43 of action. Elise Hennessey played 30:17 in the cage, allowed five goals and made five saves. Julie Krupnick went the distance in goal for Northwestern and made 12 saves.

The Tar Heels struck first in the second minute of action with a goal by Bill, followed by a goal by McCool 90 seconds later. Nine minutes into the game, Carolina led, 3-1, after a goal by Mastroianni. Northwestern went on a 3-1 run to tie the score at four apiece, then closed the first half on a 3-0 run to lead 8-7 at the break.

Carolina scored two of the first three and three of the first five goals of the second half to tie the score at 10-all in the opening five-plus minutes of the second half. After a Wildcat goal, UNC got three goals in a row, two from Ortega and one from Mastroianni, to take a 13-11 lead. Northwestern then scored again before a 5-0 Carolina built the lead to 18-12 with 22 seconds to play and put the game out of reach.

The Tar Heels will return to action next Saturday afternoon when they return to Atlantic Coast Conference play at Boston College.