Tar Heels To Host Wildcats In NCAA Quarterfinal Saturday

Saturday, May 19

Chapel Hill

1:00 PM

North Carolina

Northwestern

Goalie Taylor Moreno has double-digit saves in three consecutive games.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

May 17, 2018 | Women's Lacrosse

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TAR HEELS TO HOST NORTHWESTERN IN NCAA QUARTERFINAL ON SATURDAY
• The second-seeded North Carolina women's lacrosse team (16-3) will try to earn its seventh trip to the NCAA semifinals in the last 10 years when it hosts unseeded Northwestern (15-5) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
• Saturday's game will be played at Kenan Stadium. Last week's NCAA second-round game was played at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh while Kenan was unavailable due to UNC's commencement ceremonies.
• The game will be streamed live by ACC Network Extra.
• UNC has made nine trips to the NCAA final four in its history, including six in nine years entering Saturday's contest (1997, 1998, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016).
• Carolina won its 16th consecutive second-round NCAA Tournament game last weekend, beating Virginia Tech, 17-8.
• The Tar Heels are 21-2 in their last 23 home NCAA Tournament games (losses in 2014 and 2017).
• UNC is making its 20th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 23 years as a varsity program, including its 14th in a row.
• Carolina is seeking its third NCAA title, having won the 2013 and 2016 championships.
• The Tar Heels have won 10 consecutive games this season and captured their third straight ACC Tournament championship three weeks ago.

SERIES HISTORY VS. NORTHWESTERN
• Northwestern leads the all-time series with North Carolina, 11-8.
• The Tar Heels have won six of the last seven meetings between these two teams, including four in a row (after Northwestern won 10 of the first 12 meetings in the series between 2005-12).
• Carolina is 4-3 against Northwestern in Chapel Hill and 1-4 against the Wildcats in NCAA Tournament play. UNC won the most recent NCAA meeting, 11-4 in the 2013 semifinals on the way to winning the first national title in program history.
• Saturday will be the 15th meeting in the series in the last 10 seasons (since 2009).
• These two programs have met in the regular season 14 seasons in a row (every year since 2005) and are meeting in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2018).

TWO MONTHS AGO IN EVANSTON
CAROLINA BEATS NORTHWESTERN, 18-13 (Saturday, March 17, 2018)
• Ela Hazar had a record-setting day as fourth-ranked North Carolina (6-2) beat ninth-ranked Northwestern, 18-13, on March 17 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, 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.

MCCOOL NAMED TEWAARATON FINALIST FOR 2ND TIME
• Marie McCool is one of five finalists for the 2018 Tewaaraton Award. McCool is a finalist for the second year in a row, becoming the first UNC player to earn that distinction.
• The five women's finalists are McCool, Stony Brook senior attacker Kylie Ohlmiller, Boston College's Sam Apuzzo, James Madison's Kristen Gaudian and Maryland's Megan Whittle.
• McCool (2017, 2018) is the sixth Tar Heel to be a Tewaaraton finalist, joining Christine McPike (2002), Amber Falcone (2009), Jen Russell (2010), Becky Lynch (2012) and Kara Cannizzaro (2013). McCool is the first UNC player to be a finalist twice.
• Senior Ela Hazar was one of the top 50 Tewaaraton candidates.

MCCOOL & ORTEGA NAB ACC PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
• Marie McCool has won the ACC Midfielder of the Year award for the second year in a row. McCool, a three-time first-team All-ACC selection, is the first player in ACC women's lacrosse history to repeat as the ACC Midfielder of the Year.
• Jamie Ortega is the 2018 ACC Rookie of the Year. She leads all ACC freshmen and the Tar Heels with 61 goals, which also ranks second overall in the ACC. Her 75 points (61g, 14a) also lead all ACC rookies and ranks fourth overall. The Centereach, N.Y., native was at her best late in the season, tallying a career-high seven goals versus Duke in the Tar Heels' regular-season finale, and scoring six goals in two ACC Tournament games against Syracuse in the quarterfinals and against Boston College in the title game. She totaled an ACC Tournament-record 15 goals in three games and was named to the all-tournament team.

SIX TAR HEELS EARN ALL-ACC HONORS
• North Carolina placed six players on the 2018 All-ACC Women's Lacrosse Teams, as voted upon by the league's head coaches. Carolina and Boston College each had six players on the teams.
• Senior midfielder Marie McCool, sophomore attacker Katie Hoeg and junior defender Charlotte Sofield made the All-ACC first team.
• Senior attackers Ela Hazar and Maggie Bill and junior midfielder Kara Klages were second-team selections.
• McCool earns first-team honors for the third year in a row, becoming just the eighth Tar Heel to do so (joining Porter Wilkinson, Jenn Cook, Christina Juras, Amber Falcone, Corey Donohoe, Sloane Serpe and Abbey Friend.
• Bill and Hazar earn all-conference honors for the second time each, with Hazar having won first-team accolades in 2017 and Bill second-team in 2015.

HOEG ON VERGE OF SCHOOL SCORING MARK
• Sophomore attacker Katie Hoeg has posted a career-best season thus far in 2018, grabbing a starting job for the Tar Heels for the first time and breaking school records along the way. She has career highs in goals, assists and points this season.
• Hoeg enters Saturday's game with 83 points, tying the UNC single-season scoring record (set by Kara Cannizzaro in 2013 and tied by Molly Hendrick in 2017).
• She also has a UNC-record 45 assists, including four in the NCAA second round against Virginia Tech.

ORTEGA HAVING A DOMINANT FRESHMAN SEASON
• Freshman attacker Jamie Ortega was rated the nation's top incoming attacker prior to the 2018 season, and the freshman from Centereach, N.Y., has lived up to her billing. She won the ACC Freshman of the Year for 2018 in a vote of the league's coaches.
• Ortega has 61 goals and 14 assists for 75 points this season, leading all ACC freshmen in goals and points and leading UNC in goals.
• Ortega's 61 goals and 75 points are both UNC freshman records.
• She was the ACC's co-Offensive Player of the Week on April 24 after talling a career-high seven goals and an assist on April 21 against Duke for a career-high eight points. The seven goals were one shy of the UNC single-game record of eight set by Kellie Thompson against UMBC in 2002.
• Ortega also earned ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors on April 3 and IWLCA National Player of the Week honors on April 4 after she totaled nine points on eight goals and one assist in wins over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.
• She was named the IWLCA National Offensive Player of the Week on May 3 after her strong ACC Tournament performance.

HAZAR IS THE FIRST TAR HEEL EVER TO COMPILE 100 CAREER ASSISTS
• Hazar became the first UNC player ever to record 100 career assists on March 28 when she tallied her 100th against Virginia Tech.
• Hazar holds Carolina records for most assists in a game (eight) and a career (115) Her 43 assists this year are a career high and the second-highest total in UNC history (behind Katie Hoeg's 45 this year).
• Hazar set the UNC career record on March 17 at Northwestern, snapping the previous record of 92 set by Becky Lynch (2009-12).
• Hazar also set a school single-game record with eight assists in the same, 18-13 win at Northwestern on March 17.
• She was a 2018 Midseason All-America by ILWomen.com.

MARIE McCOOL ALL OVER THE FIELD AGAIN AS A SENIOR
• Midfielder Marie McCool is among the most decorated players in the nation and is one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award (and the first two-time finalist in UNC history).
• She has a team-high 144 draw controls (the UNC single-season record is 145, set last year by Sammy Jo Tracy) and 22 caused turnovers this season, as well as 56 goals (second on the team) and 72 points (fourth on the team).
• The do-it-all McCool tied her career high with seven goals on Feb. 18 versus Liberty and controlled a career-high 13 draws on March 3 against Florida.
• 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.
• She also was one of four nominees for the 2017 Honda Award for Lacrosse. She is a two-time, first-team All-America and a three-time, first-team All-ACC pick. She also was the 2017 and 2018 ACC Midfielder of the Year and the 2017 ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
• McCool 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.

CAROLINA HAS WON 33 OF LAST 35 VS. ACC
• Carolina has won 33 of its last 35 games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, losing only to Syracuse in 2017 and Boston College in 2018 since the 2015 ACC Tournament final.

TAR HEELS ARE 50-6 IN LAST 56 GAMES
• The Tar Heels enter Saturday's game having won 50 of their last 56 games, dating 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 prior to this season.

BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK ACC TOURNAMENT TITLES
• Carolina won its third consecutive ACC Tournament in 2018, beating Syracuse, Virginia Tech and previously unbeaten Boston College to take the crown in Durham, N.C.
• The Tar Heels have won four ACC Tournaments, including each of the last three (2002, 2016, 2017, 2018).

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 and Florida's Amanda O'Leary have since joined the group.
• Levy has a record of 328-112 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.