Jamie Ortega
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
GoHeels Exclusive: Ortega Primed & Ready, Olympic Sports Notes
April 24, 2018 | Women's Lacrosse, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
Jenny Levy watched throughout last week as Jamie Ortega seemingly found success in every practice. So before the North Carolina women's lacrosse team's 20-10 win over Duke on Saturday, Levy pulled her star freshman aside.Â
"I told her before the game," Levy recalled, "'You are totally primed with a great week of practice to go and just put your foot on the accelerator and go attack all day. Whatever they give you, take it and compete with it.'"
Ortega did just that. And in helping secure a win in the final regular-season home game for six senior Tar Heels, she registered the best game of her young career.
With a career-high seven goals and an assist, Ortega notched a career-high eight points. The seven goals were just one shy of the UNC single-game record of eight set by Kellie Thompson against UMBC in 2002.Â
Saturday's offensive outburst likely bolstered Ortega's ACC Freshman of the Year candidacy.
In 15 games, she's scored 43 goals, tied for the third most among ACC freshmen. Duke's Charlotte North has 48 goals in 15 games, and Virginia Tech's Paige Petty has 46 goals in 16 games. Louisville's Caroline Blalock also has 43 goals. She's played 16 games.
With 12 assists each, Ortega and Blalock lead ACC freshmen in points (55).
"The confidence she plays with is what sets her apart from others because she doesn't play like she's a freshman," said Marie McCool of Ortega, whose 43 goals are currently the most scored by a Carolina freshman in a season since Corey Donohoe had 50 in 2008. Â
"She is unstoppable in my opinion when she has the ball in her stick, and she's so versatile; she doesn't just have one move."
Partly because of Ortega, the Tar Heels will defend their back-to-back ACC Championship titles as the No. 2 seed. They'll open this year's tournament, held at Duke's Koskinen Stadium, against Syracuse at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Hesterlee's huge swing
With the baseball team trailing Georgia Tech 6-2 on Saturday, Jackson Hesterlee entered the game as a pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning. And as he's been prone to do, he delivered off the bench.
Hesterlee fouled off consecutive 0-2 pitches before hitting a game-tying grand slam. The Tar Heels went on to win 9-8 in 10 innings, clinching their first series victory over the Yellow Jackets at home since 2008. UNC then completed its first three-game sweep of Georgia Tech since 1996 with a 10-3 win Sunday.
With his grand slam, Hesterlee is 8-for-12 at the plate when coming off the bench. He started Sunday's game and went 2-for-2, improving to 6-for-11 over his last six games.Â
Griffin adds to legacy
Behind a first-round 67 and then two 69s, Ben Griffin became the first player in the history of the men's golf program to shoot three rounds in the 60s in an ACC Championship.
Griffin finished the 2018 ACC Championship, held Friday-Sunday at the Old North State Club, with an 11-under-par 205. That tied the school record for the lowest 54-hole score and score to par in UNC history for ACC Championship play. Dustin Bray also shot an 11-under 205 in 2002.Â
Griffin placed fifth overall, five strokes behind Virginia's Thomas Walsh. The Tar Heels took sixth with a 19-under 845. Georgia Tech won the team title with a 29-under 835.
Ocano's career round
After never breaking 70 in her first 14 collegiate tournaments, Mariana Ocano shot a bogey-free 67 in the second round of the ACC Women's Golf Championship, held Saturday-Monday at the Grandover East Course.
Ocano became one of only five UNC golfers to shoot a 67 in ACC Championship play. Her score also tied the ACC Championship record at the Grandover East Course.
Battling gusty winds and rain Monday, Ocano shot a 7-over 79, but still finished the highest on the player leaderboard for the Tar Heels. Her 7-over 223 tied her for 23rd. As a team, UNC finished in a tie for eighth with a 31-over 895.
Lane's last hurrah
Morgan Lane's decorated Carolina gymnastics career came to an end Friday at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships in St. Louis.
Making her first appearance at the NCAA Championships, Lane finished 15th overall with an all-around score of 39.2750. With that score, she set a new UNC single-season points record, which she accomplished by earning all-around scores of at least 39.000 in each of her 10 appearances.
Lane finished the NCAA Championships with scores of 9.7875 on beam, 9.8750 on floor exercise, 9.8000 on vault and 9.8125 on uneven bars.
Bassil steps up
Alex Bassil entered the spring as the men's lacrosse team's fourth-string goalkeeper. But after injuries and other issues earned him the starting job by late March, he delivered his most impressive performance in Saturday's 10-9 win over No. 14 Notre Dame.
Bassil made a career-high 14 saves. None was more important than his kick save on a shot by Bryan Costabile with 10 seconds left. That helped the Tar Heels snap their seven-game losing streak and send 13 seniors outwinners on Senior Day in the final match of the 2018 season.
For his performance, Bassil was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of April 16-22.
More than just a pitcherÂ
Brittany Pickett has dominated in the circle for the softball team throughout this season. But entering last week, she had only seen 54 at-bats after hitting .299 (44-for-147) with 12 home runs as a freshman.
Donna J. Papa said Pickett's at-bats had been limited so she could focus on shouldering the pitching load. Looking for production in the cleanup spot, though, Papa penciled Pickett into that spot in the lineup against N.C. State last Monday, when she went 2-for-3 with a three-run home run and a career-high four RBIs.
Pickett stayed in the lineup for the next four games. And in a 4-3 win over East Carolina and a 2-1 series loss at Georgia Tech, she hit two more home runs.
Sigouin key in big weekend
En route to claiming a share of the ACC regular-season title with Wake Forest, the seventh-ranked men's tennis team received key singles wins from freshman Benjamin Sigouin at Florida State on Friday and at Miami on Sunday.
In a 4-1 victory over No. 11 Florida State, which had won 14 matches in a row at home, Sigouin, ranked No. 38 nationally in singles, secured the clinching point when he beat No. 31 Guy Iradukunda 6-2, 6-3. It was Sigouin's third win over a player ranked higher than him.
Sigouin followed that win up with another Sunday, when he beat Miami's Christian Langmo, ranked No. 123, 7-5, 6-3. Aided by Sigouin's win, his eighth over a ranked player this spring, the Tar Heels went on to a 4-0 win.
Because Wake Forest also finished with an 11-1 ACC record and won the tiebreaker with UNC, Carolina enters the ACC Championship as the No. 2 seed.Â
Senior sendoff
Although the women's tennis team fell 5-2 at Duke on Friday, snapping a five-match winning streak over the Blue Devils, the Tar Heels bounced back with a 6-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
Sunday was the final regular-season match for seniors Marika Akkerman, Maggie Kane and Cassandra Vazquez. And all three played significant roles in the win.
Kane and Vazquez teamed up and clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory over Pittsburgh's tandem of Clara Lucas and Claudia Bartolome. Then in singles, Akkerman seized the clinching point with her 6-4, 6-0 win over Lucas.
At 23-3 overall and 12-2 in the ACC, UNC enters the ACC Championship as the No. 3 seed.
Shippee's record-breaking performance
For the third straight weekend, a member of the track and field team set a new school record Saturday, when Jillian Shippee broke Laura Gerraughty's record in the women's hammer throw at the Virginia Challenge.
Shippee threw for 207 feet, 3 inches (63.19 meters) on her first attempt to win the competition and break the record. Gerraughty's throw of 205-8 had been the record since 2003.
Shippee and three other current Tar Heels – Brianna Duncan (60 meters, all-conditions 100 meters, outdoor 200 meters), Morgan Ilse (indoor 5,000 meters) and Kenny Selmon (400-meter hurdles) – now own six total UNC track and field records.
Â
Jenny Levy watched throughout last week as Jamie Ortega seemingly found success in every practice. So before the North Carolina women's lacrosse team's 20-10 win over Duke on Saturday, Levy pulled her star freshman aside.Â
"I told her before the game," Levy recalled, "'You are totally primed with a great week of practice to go and just put your foot on the accelerator and go attack all day. Whatever they give you, take it and compete with it.'"
Ortega did just that. And in helping secure a win in the final regular-season home game for six senior Tar Heels, she registered the best game of her young career.
With a career-high seven goals and an assist, Ortega notched a career-high eight points. The seven goals were just one shy of the UNC single-game record of eight set by Kellie Thompson against UMBC in 2002.Â
Saturday's offensive outburst likely bolstered Ortega's ACC Freshman of the Year candidacy.
In 15 games, she's scored 43 goals, tied for the third most among ACC freshmen. Duke's Charlotte North has 48 goals in 15 games, and Virginia Tech's Paige Petty has 46 goals in 16 games. Louisville's Caroline Blalock also has 43 goals. She's played 16 games.
With 12 assists each, Ortega and Blalock lead ACC freshmen in points (55).
"The confidence she plays with is what sets her apart from others because she doesn't play like she's a freshman," said Marie McCool of Ortega, whose 43 goals are currently the most scored by a Carolina freshman in a season since Corey Donohoe had 50 in 2008. Â
"She is unstoppable in my opinion when she has the ball in her stick, and she's so versatile; she doesn't just have one move."
Partly because of Ortega, the Tar Heels will defend their back-to-back ACC Championship titles as the No. 2 seed. They'll open this year's tournament, held at Duke's Koskinen Stadium, against Syracuse at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Hesterlee's huge swing
With the baseball team trailing Georgia Tech 6-2 on Saturday, Jackson Hesterlee entered the game as a pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning. And as he's been prone to do, he delivered off the bench.
Hesterlee fouled off consecutive 0-2 pitches before hitting a game-tying grand slam. The Tar Heels went on to win 9-8 in 10 innings, clinching their first series victory over the Yellow Jackets at home since 2008. UNC then completed its first three-game sweep of Georgia Tech since 1996 with a 10-3 win Sunday.
With his grand slam, Hesterlee is 8-for-12 at the plate when coming off the bench. He started Sunday's game and went 2-for-2, improving to 6-for-11 over his last six games.Â
Griffin adds to legacy
Behind a first-round 67 and then two 69s, Ben Griffin became the first player in the history of the men's golf program to shoot three rounds in the 60s in an ACC Championship.
Griffin finished the 2018 ACC Championship, held Friday-Sunday at the Old North State Club, with an 11-under-par 205. That tied the school record for the lowest 54-hole score and score to par in UNC history for ACC Championship play. Dustin Bray also shot an 11-under 205 in 2002.Â
Griffin placed fifth overall, five strokes behind Virginia's Thomas Walsh. The Tar Heels took sixth with a 19-under 845. Georgia Tech won the team title with a 29-under 835.
Ocano's career round
After never breaking 70 in her first 14 collegiate tournaments, Mariana Ocano shot a bogey-free 67 in the second round of the ACC Women's Golf Championship, held Saturday-Monday at the Grandover East Course.
Ocano became one of only five UNC golfers to shoot a 67 in ACC Championship play. Her score also tied the ACC Championship record at the Grandover East Course.
Battling gusty winds and rain Monday, Ocano shot a 7-over 79, but still finished the highest on the player leaderboard for the Tar Heels. Her 7-over 223 tied her for 23rd. As a team, UNC finished in a tie for eighth with a 31-over 895.
Lane's last hurrah
Morgan Lane's decorated Carolina gymnastics career came to an end Friday at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships in St. Louis.
Making her first appearance at the NCAA Championships, Lane finished 15th overall with an all-around score of 39.2750. With that score, she set a new UNC single-season points record, which she accomplished by earning all-around scores of at least 39.000 in each of her 10 appearances.
Lane finished the NCAA Championships with scores of 9.7875 on beam, 9.8750 on floor exercise, 9.8000 on vault and 9.8125 on uneven bars.
Bassil steps up
Alex Bassil entered the spring as the men's lacrosse team's fourth-string goalkeeper. But after injuries and other issues earned him the starting job by late March, he delivered his most impressive performance in Saturday's 10-9 win over No. 14 Notre Dame.
Bassil made a career-high 14 saves. None was more important than his kick save on a shot by Bryan Costabile with 10 seconds left. That helped the Tar Heels snap their seven-game losing streak and send 13 seniors outwinners on Senior Day in the final match of the 2018 season.
For his performance, Bassil was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of April 16-22.
More than just a pitcherÂ
Brittany Pickett has dominated in the circle for the softball team throughout this season. But entering last week, she had only seen 54 at-bats after hitting .299 (44-for-147) with 12 home runs as a freshman.
Donna J. Papa said Pickett's at-bats had been limited so she could focus on shouldering the pitching load. Looking for production in the cleanup spot, though, Papa penciled Pickett into that spot in the lineup against N.C. State last Monday, when she went 2-for-3 with a three-run home run and a career-high four RBIs.
Pickett stayed in the lineup for the next four games. And in a 4-3 win over East Carolina and a 2-1 series loss at Georgia Tech, she hit two more home runs.
Sigouin key in big weekend
En route to claiming a share of the ACC regular-season title with Wake Forest, the seventh-ranked men's tennis team received key singles wins from freshman Benjamin Sigouin at Florida State on Friday and at Miami on Sunday.
In a 4-1 victory over No. 11 Florida State, which had won 14 matches in a row at home, Sigouin, ranked No. 38 nationally in singles, secured the clinching point when he beat No. 31 Guy Iradukunda 6-2, 6-3. It was Sigouin's third win over a player ranked higher than him.
Sigouin followed that win up with another Sunday, when he beat Miami's Christian Langmo, ranked No. 123, 7-5, 6-3. Aided by Sigouin's win, his eighth over a ranked player this spring, the Tar Heels went on to a 4-0 win.
Because Wake Forest also finished with an 11-1 ACC record and won the tiebreaker with UNC, Carolina enters the ACC Championship as the No. 2 seed.Â
Senior sendoff
Although the women's tennis team fell 5-2 at Duke on Friday, snapping a five-match winning streak over the Blue Devils, the Tar Heels bounced back with a 6-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
Sunday was the final regular-season match for seniors Marika Akkerman, Maggie Kane and Cassandra Vazquez. And all three played significant roles in the win.
Kane and Vazquez teamed up and clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory over Pittsburgh's tandem of Clara Lucas and Claudia Bartolome. Then in singles, Akkerman seized the clinching point with her 6-4, 6-0 win over Lucas.
At 23-3 overall and 12-2 in the ACC, UNC enters the ACC Championship as the No. 3 seed.
Shippee's record-breaking performance
For the third straight weekend, a member of the track and field team set a new school record Saturday, when Jillian Shippee broke Laura Gerraughty's record in the women's hammer throw at the Virginia Challenge.
Shippee threw for 207 feet, 3 inches (63.19 meters) on her first attempt to win the competition and break the record. Gerraughty's throw of 205-8 had been the record since 2003.
Shippee and three other current Tar Heels – Brianna Duncan (60 meters, all-conditions 100 meters, outdoor 200 meters), Morgan Ilse (indoor 5,000 meters) and Kenny Selmon (400-meter hurdles) – now own six total UNC track and field records.
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