Tar Heels To Face Dukes In NCAA Semifinal Friday

Friday, May 25

Stony Brook, N.Y.

5 p.m.

North Carolina

James Madison

Jamie Ortega, Kara Klages & Marie McCool will face James Madison on Friday.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

May 24, 2018 | Women's Lacrosse

Watch Game Notes Live Stats

TAR HEELS TO MEET DUKES IN NCAA SEMIFINAL ON FRIDAY
• The second-seeded North Carolina women's lacrosse team (17-3) will try to claim its fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament championship game in the last 10 years when it faces third-seeded James Madison (20-1) in the national semifinals on Friday afternoon in Stony Brook, N.Y.
• The Tar Heels and Dukes will take the opening draw in Friday's first NCAA semifinal at 5 p.m. at LaValle Stadium on the campus of Stony Brook University. The game will be streamed live by ESPN3.
• UNC has made 10 trips to the NCAA final four in its history, including seven in the last 10 years (1997, 1998, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018).
• Top-seeded Maryland will meet fourth-seeded Boston College at approximately 7:30 p.m., 30 minutes after the conclusion of the UNC-JMU contest. Friday's winners will meet on Sunday at noon in the national championship game.
• The game will be streamed live by ESPN3 and will be available with the ESPN app and at WatchESPN.com.
• Carolina advanced to Friday's semifinal with a 19-14 win over Northwestern last Saturday, improving to 23-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament home games.
• The Tar Heels and James Madison will be facing off for the second time this season after the Dukes beat Carolina, 15-14 in double overtime on Feb. 10 in the season opener for both teams.
• 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 11 consecutive games this season and captured their third straight ACC Tournament championship a month ago.
• UNC backup goalie Alex Halpin will be taking part in her second final four of the 2017-18 academic year. Halpin is also a member of the UNC field hockey team that reached the NCAA semifinals last fall.

LONG ISLAND HOMECOMING FOR SIX TAR HEELS
• Six Tar Heel players will be returning home to Long Island for the NCAA championship weekend:
#22 Maggie Bill (Huntington/St. Anthony's HS)
#8 Katie Hoeg (Mattituck/Mattituck HS)
#17 Maddie Hoffer (Stony Brook/Sachem North HS)
#33 Kate Kotowski (Lloyd Harbor/Cold Spring Harbor HS)
#30 Taylor Moreno (Huntington/Huntington HS)
#3 Jamie Ortega (Centereach/Middle Country HS)

SERIES HISTORY VS. JAMES MADISON
• Carolina leads the all-time series with James Madison, 6-3.
• Although the Dukes beat the Tar Heels, 15-14, in double overtime on Feb. 10 in the first game of the 2018 season for both teams, Carolina has won five of the last six meetings in the series.
• Friday's game will mark the first neutral site meeting between these two schools.

FEB. 10, 2018, AT JMU:
DUKES DOWN TAR HEELS IN 2OT, 15-14 (Harrisonburg, Va.)
• Kristen Gaudian scored a man-down goal at the 1:53 mark of the second overtime period to lift 16th-ranked James Madison to a 15-14, double-overtime win over third-ranked North Carolina on Feb. 10 in the season opener for both teams.
• Marie McCool led the way for the Tar Heels with four goals, one assist and eight draw controls. Ela Hazar had a goal and three assists and Katie Hoeg scored three times. Kara Klages had a goal and an assist, and Ally Mastroianni, Taylor McDaniels, Jamie Ortega, Scottie Rose Growney and Gianna Bowe each scored once.
• JMU got five goals apiece from Gaudian and Elena Romesburg, as well as two goals and an assist from Hanna- Haven.

BALANCED ATTACK, MORENO LEAD TAR HEELS PAST NORTHWESTERN & INTO FINAL FOUR
• Taylor Moreno tied her career high with 17 saves and six Tar Heels scored multiple goals as second-seeded North Carolina defeated Northwestern, 19-14, in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in Chapel Hill.
• Jamie Ortega led the Tar Heels with five goals and an assist, while Marie McCool added three goals, three assists and 11 draw controls, breaking the UNC single-season draw control record in the process. Ela Hazar also had three goals and three assists, and Maggie Bill added two goals and two assists. Olivia Ferrucci and Kara Klages each scored twice, and Scottie Rose Growney scored once.
• Katie Hoeg had a goal and three assists and broke the UNC single-season scoring record. She entered the game with 83 points, tying Kara Cannizzaro (2013) and Molly Hendrick (2017) for the most in school history. She now has 87 points entering this weekend's action.

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.
• 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.

SMASHING OFFENSIVE RECORDS
• Carolina is rewriting its offensive record book in 2018. The Tar Heels have set new school records this spring for most goals (320), assists (170) and points (490).
• The quartet of Katie Hoeg, Jamie Ortega, Ela Hazar and Marie McCool has been largely responsible for the offensive explosion in 2018.
• Hoeg (87 points), Ortega (81), Hazar (80) and McCool (78) all have posted career highs in points this season. Their efforts represent four of the top seven single-season point totals in UNC history, including Hoeg's school-record 87.

FOUR ILWOMEN ALL-AMERICAS
• Four Tar Heels have earned All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse for 2018.
• Senior midfielder Marie McCool made the first team and sophomore attacker Katie Hoeg made the second team, while senior attacker Ela Hazar and freshman attacker Jamie Ortega made the third team.
• Sophomore defender Erin Kelly and redshirt freshman goalie Taylor Moreno were on the honorable mention list.

MCCOOL & ORTEGA GRAB ACC PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
• Marie McCool won the ACC Midfielder of the Year award for the second year in a row. McCool, a three-time first-team All-America and All-ACC selection, is the first player in ACC women's lacrosse history to repeat as the ACC Midfielder of the Year.
• Jamie Ortega was the 2018 ACC Rookie of the Year. She leads all ACC freshmen and the Tar Heels with 66 goals, which also ranks second overall in the ACC. Her 81 points (66g, 15a) 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 earned 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 earned all-conference honors for the second time each, with Hazar having won first-team accolades in 2017 and Bill second-team in 2015.

HOEG'S CAREER YEAR
• 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 Friday's game with a UNC school-record 87 points, breaking the previous record of 83 in the NCAA quarterfinal win over Northwestern.
• She also has a UNC-record 48 assists, including four in the NCAA second round against Virginia Tech and three in the quarterfinals against Northwestern.

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 2018 ACC Freshman of the Year award in a vote of the league's coaches.
• Ortega has 66 goals and 15 assists for 81 points this season, leading all ACC freshmen in goals and points and leading UNC in goals.
• Ortega's 66 goals and 81 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 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 (120) Her 46 assists this spring are a career high and the second-highest total in UNC history (behind Katie Hoeg's 48 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 2018 Tewaaraton Award (and the first two-time finalist in UNC history).
• She has a school-record 155 draw controls and a team-high 22 caused turnovers this season, as well as 59 goals (second on the team) and 78 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 is a three-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. She also was one of four nominees for the 2017 Honda Award for Lacrosse.
• 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 51-6 IN LAST 57 GAMES
• The Tar Heels enter Friday's game having won 51 of their last 57 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. UNC is riding an 11-game winning streak entering the NCAA championship weekend in Stony Brook.

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 329-112 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.