Tar Heels Wrap Up Homestand Vs. Gators

Saturday, March 3

Chapel Hill

1:15 PM

North Carolina

Florida

Carolina and the Gators will meet on Saturday in Kenan Stadium.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

March 1, 2018 | Women's Lacrosse

Watch Live Stats Game Notes Media Guide

• The North Carolina women's lacrosse team will play its second consecutive top-five ranked opponent when it hosts No. 4 Florida on Saturday at 1:15 p.m. Last weekend, the Tar Heels beat No. 1 Maryland, 16-15, in overtime in Chapel Hill.
• The third-ranked Tar Heels are looking for their fourth straight win after a season-opening, overtime loss at James Madison.
• Carolina is ranked No. 3 this week in the IWLCA coaches poll and the Cascade media poll. Florida is No. 4 in the coaches poll and No. 6 in the media poll this week.
• The Tar Heels and Florida have played a common opponent this season in Maryland. Two weeks ago, the top-ranked Terrapins beat the Gators, 16-14, in Gainesville. Last weekend, UNC beat the Terps, 16-15, in overtime.
• The Gators are 3-1 this season and are coming off a 16-5 home win over Jacksonville on Wednesday.
• Saturday's contest wraps up a three-game homestand for UNC and precedes a four-game road swing that will include trips to Virginia, Elon, Northwestern and Boston College in a two-week span starting next weekend.
• Saturday's game will be streamed live by ACC Network Extra. Daron Vaught (play-by-play) and Keith Barnes (analyst) will have the call.
• Carolina is the two-time defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion and has won three consecutive ACC regular season titles.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE GATORS
• Carolina leads the all-time series with Florida, 7-2. UNC is 5-1 against the Gators in Chapel Hill, winning the first five meetings in Chapel Hill and losing the most recent matchup in 2016.
• Last year, Carolina won, 13-10, in Gainesville (see more details below).
• Florida handed the Tar Heels one of their two losses during their 2016 NCAA championship season, beating UNC, 16-15, in Chapel Hill on Feb. 20, 2016.

LAST YEAR AGAINST THE GATORS
• Ela Hazar tied her career high with six points as top-ranked Carolina posted a 13-10 win at No. 3 Florida on Feb. 11, 2017, in Gainesville, Fla.
• Sammy Jo Tracy scored three of her four goals in a 4-1 Tar Heel blitz in the final 3:49 of the game that turned a 9-9 tie into a 13-10 victory, UNC's 19th in a row.
• Molly Hendrick had three first-half goals, Carly Reed scored twice and Maggie Bill had a goal and an assist for Carolina. Sydney Holman scored a free position goal, while Marie McCool and Alex Moore each had assists.

McCOOL & TRENCHARD SWEEP ACC HONORS
• Following an overtime win over top-ranked Maryland, North Carolina senior midfielder Marie McCool was named the ACC Women's Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week, while teammate freshman defender Emma Trenchard was the ACC Defensive Player of the Week (February 27).
• McCool led UNC to a 16-15 overtime win over No. 1 Maryland with four goals, one assist, eight draw controls, two caused turnovers and a ground ball. McCool assisted on teammate Ela Hazar's game-tying goal with 22 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime. In the extra period, she scored the game-winner off an assist from Jamie Ortega.
• Trenchard led a strong Tar Heel defensive effort, controlling four draws, collecting three ground balls and causing three turnovers. Trenchard controlled the draw to start overtime, then brought the ball into the offensive end to start the possession that included the game-winning goal by McCool. The Windsor, Conn., native helped guide a UNC defense that held Maryland scoreless for the final 9:25 of the game.

TAR HEELS TRIP TOP-RANKED TERPS IN OT, 16-15
• Marie McCool scored 43 seconds into overtime to lift seventh-ranked North Carolina to a 16-15 win over top-ranked Maryland on Feb. 24.
• After freshman Emma Trenchard won the draw to start the extra period, fellow freshman Jamie Ortega dished to McCool, who scored the game-winner. McCool also assisted Ela Hazar's goal with 22 seconds remaining in the second half to tie the game at 15-all. Carolina overcame a two-goal deficit in the final four minutes of regulation to force overtime.
• Maryland saw its 25-game overall winning streak and its 24-game road winning streaks come to an end. It was Maryland's first road loss in nearly four years, since a 17-15 UNC win in Chapel Hill in 2014.
• Ortega led all players with six points on four goals and two assists in the game, while McCool had four goals and one assist and Hazar had three goals and an assist. Ally Mastroianni scored twice and added an assist for Carolina, while Katie Hoeg had a goal and two assists. Kara Klages and Gianna Bowe each scored single goals.
• Jen Giles (three goals and an assist) and Caroline Steele (two goals and two assists) led the Terrapins with four points each. Megan Whittle had two goals and an assist, while Kali Hartshorn, Taylor Hensh, Grace Griffin and Meghan Siverson all scored twice.

TAR HEELS PLAYING AT KENAN STADIUM IN 2018
• The Tar Heel men's and women's lacrosse teams will play their home games in 2018 at Kenan Stadium, home of the UNC football team. Carolina's home lacrosse stadium, Fetzer Field, is under extensive renovations and scheduled to reopen for the 2018-19 academic year.
• The new Fetzer Field will be a soccer/lacrosse facility with improved fan amenities, office space for UNC coaches, training and medical facilities, locker rooms and more.
• Fetzer was built in 1935, and the Carolina women's lacrosse team has played games at Fetzer since the inception of the program in 1996.
• Carolina is 139-28 all-time at Fetzer Field, including 18-2 in NCAA Tournament games.

Marie McCool BACK FOR MORE AS A SENIOR
• Midfielder Marie McCool is among the most decorated players in the nation and is primed to earn more national honors as senior in 2018.
• She leads the Tar Heels with 18 goals, 20 points and 31 draw controls this season.
• She set a career high with 11 draw controls on Feb. 16 against High Point and tied her career high with seven goals on Feb. 18 versus Liberty.
• McCool won ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors on Feb. 27 after tallying four goals, an assist and eight draw controls in UNC's win over Maryland.
• McCool's 4.50 goals per game rank fifth in the nation.
• She was one of five 2017 finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, the highest individual honor in the sport, as well as one of four nominees for the 2017 Honda Award for Lacrosse. She is a two-time, first-team All-America and two-time, first-team All-ACC pick. She also was the 2017 ACC Midfielder of the Year and the 2017 ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
• McCool also was one of just two college players on the United States National Team that won a gold medal at the World Cup in England in July of 2017.

HAZAR APPROACHING UNC CAREER ASSIST RECORD
• Senior attacker Ela Hazar enters Saturday's game with 84 career assists, ranking third in school history in the category. She needs two assists to tie Sydney Holman (2014-17) for second place and eight to tie Becky Lynch (2009-12) for the UNC career record.
• Hazar had a school-record 40 assists last season.
• Hazar's 2.50 assists per game this season are tied for 14th in the nation in the latest NCAA statistics.

ROSTER TURNOVER
• UNC returns 21 letterwinners and five starters from its 2017 team that won the ACC regular season and ACC Tournament while ranking among the top three teams in the national polls throughout the season.
• Carolina graduated a decorated senior class after the 2017 campaign, a group that included ACC Attacker of the Year Molly Hendrick, two-time National Goalie of the Year Caylee Waters, All-Americas Sammy Jo Tracy and Maggie Auslander and more.

BACK-TO-BACK ACC TOURNAMENT TITLES
• Carolina won its second straight ACC Tournament last year, beating Duke, Boston College and Syracuse by an average of over seven goals per game.
• The Tar Heels have won three ACC Tournaments, including each of the last two (2002, 2016, 2017).

THREE STRAIGHT ACC REGULAR SEASON TITLES
• Carolina was the ACC regular season champion in 2017 for the third year in a row and the eighth time overall: 1998 (outright), 2000 (tie), 2006 (tie), 2010 (tie), 2012 (outright), 2015 (outright), 2016 (outright) and 2017 (outright).

CAROLINA HAS WON 23 OF LAST 24 VS. ACC
• Carolina has won 23 of its last 24 games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, losing only to Syracuse in the 2017 regular season in Chapel Hill since the 2015 ACC Tournament final.

TAR HEELS ARE 37-4 IN LAST 40 GAMES
• The Tar Heels enter Saturday's game having won 37 of their last 41 games, dating back to early in the 2016 season.
• Carolina closed its 2016 NCAA championship run on a 17-game winning streak, then went 17-3 in 2017.

300 WINS FOR LEVY
• Head coach Jenny Levy became the third coach in NCAA Division I history to win 300 games with a win over Canisius in March 2017. Levy joined Navy's Cindy Timchal and Princeton's Chris Sailer in the 300-win club, and Virginia's Julie Myers has since joined the group.
• Levy has a record of 315-110 in her 23rd season as a head coach (all at Carolina).

LEVY NAMED HEAD COACH OF U.S. NATIONAL TEAM
• UNC's Jenny Levy was named head coach of the United States women's national team on November 9, 2017.
• Levy takes over for Georgetown coach Ricky Fried, who led the U.S. to back-to-back Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships, including a 10-5 victory over Canada in the gold medal game in Guildford, England last summer. The U.S. has been the dominant force in international women's lacrosse for decades, winning eight of the 10 FIL World Cups held since 1982.