Senior Spotlight: Ashley Hoffman

In the final days of the 2018 season, as the top-ranked Tar Heels prepare to play in the NCAA championship game on Sunday, GoHeels.com will spotlight the seniors ending their UNC careers this weekend. Read on for more on Ashley Hoffman, a back and sociology major from Mohnton, Pa.

Matt Penner
UNC Athletic Communications

            Ashley Hoffman had less than a month to return from England and prepare for UNC's opener against Michigan. It wasn't a study abroad program or an internship that took her overseas, but Team USA.

            The U.S. National Team's last World Cup game was July 29 and UNC started its preseason in ealy August. Hoffman admits splitting time between the two teams is tough, on top of being a full-time student.

            "It's a balancing act right now," she says. "It's a lot on your plate while still trying to have fun."

            Hoffman played for the national team this summer in the 2018 Hockey World Cup in London. She earned her first cap with the nation's top team in 2017 and has been in the USA system since she played for the U-17 team in 2012. Besides this summer's World Cup in London, she has represented Team USA in Argentina, Chile and South Africa, along with competitions in the United States. She was part of the 2017 World League Semifinals team that won gold in South Africa.

            "To be focused solely on the national team, I think it'll be a lot of fun and I get to travel with them all the time," she says. "I don't have to choose between school and travelling."

            But she's been fully focused on her final collegiate season. Hoffman emphasizes "not underestimating any team" and playing every game with the understanding of how it has prepared the group for a national title run. After all, that's why she chose UNC.

            "I wanted to come to a program where I could potentially win a national championship," says Hoffman, whose mother, Brenda, won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics as a teammate of UNC coach Karen Shelton's. "And there's no better school for that than here, I think."

            The two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year anchors a Carolina defense that is has given up just 16 goals in 22 games this year, best in the nation. Some teams have struggled to even get shots off against the Tar Heels. In consecutive days in September, Carolina allowed a total of four shots in games against Ball State and Syracuse. Hoffman believes UNC's defense is the key to a national title.

            "We really live by the idea that defense wins championships, from the forwards back," she says. "And I think that will get us there."

            Hoffman's durability and flexibility are great assets to Shelton. She leads the team in minutes and has started every game possible in her UNC career. Though she plays on defense, she's an offensive leader on penalty corners. She's tied for second on the team in goals with 16, a career high, and has a total of 110 points in her career.

            Hoffman will graduate from UNC in December and knows the day she begins training full-time with Team USA: It's Jan. 7. But until then, she's focused on holding down Carolina's defense to win the national championship that she and her teammates have narrowly missed in recent years.

            "I'm really sad to leave in December because of them," she says of her teammates. "Our team value is 'with each other, for each other,' and I think that really embodies who we are together."

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