Tar Heels To Host High Point, ECU This Weekend

Friday, February 15

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

High Point

Senior Gianna Bowe

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

February 14, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Watch Friday Watch Sunday Live Stats

TAR HEELS TO HOST HIGH POINT & ECU
• North Carolina will continue its young 2019 season when it hosts a pair of games at Kenan Stadium this weekend.
• The Tar Heels (1-0) will entertain High Point (1-0) on Friday at 6 p.m. and then will welcome East Carolina (2-0) on Sunday at noon.
• Carolina is coming off a dominating, 18-7 win over defending NCAA champion James Madison last Saturday afternoon. Katie Hoeg, who had career highs with six assists and nine points in the win, and Taylor Moreno, who made 10 saves in goal, led the way for UNC.
• The Tar Heels were tied for No. 2 in the preseason IWLCA poll and are No. 3 in the Inside Lacrosse D1 Media Poll.
• Seeking its eighth trip to the NCAA Tournament final four in the last 11 years, the 2019 Tar Heels boast an experienced group of nine returning starters and 25 returning letterwinners.
• The ACC Network Extra will stream both of this weekend's games live.

SERIES HISTORY VS. HIGH POINT
• Carolina leads the all-time series with High Point, including three wins in Chapel Hill and three in High Point. Last year, UNC won, 14-10, in High Point.

LAST YEAR AT HIGH POINT: TAR HEELS TOP PANTHERS 14-10
• Carolina went on a 7-2 run in the first half and rode strong performances by Jamie Ortega, Marie McCool and Ela Hazar to win, 14-10, at High Point on Feb. 16, 2018.
• Ortega and McCool each scored three goals and Hazar scored once while dishing out three assists to lead a balanced Tar Heel offensive attack. Marisa DiVietro had two goals and an assist, while Katie Hoeg and Gianna Bowe had two goals each.

SERIES HISTORY VS. ECU
• Carolina and East Carolina will be meeting for the first time in women's lacrosse on Sunday.
• The ECU coaching staff features a pair of familiar faces in head coach Amanda Barnes-Moore and Emily Garrity Parros. Barnes was a goalie at Carolina from 2005-08, and Garrity won an NCAA championship with the Tar Heels as a senior in 2013.

HOEG & MORENO SWEEP ACC WEEKLY AWARDS
• Carolina junior attacker Katie Hoeg has been named Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week on Feb. 12, while UNC goalie Taylor Moreno was selected as ACC Defensive Player of the Week.
• Hoeg had career highs with six assists and nine points as No. 2 North Carolina beat defending NCAA champion and fourth-ranked James Madison. Hoeg scored the eventual game-winning goal and assisted on three of teammate Jamie Ortega's five goals in the Tar Heel victory.
• Moreno was dominant in the cage in Carolina's 18-7 win over James Madison, making 10 saves and adding a caused turnover and a ground ball. Moreno helped limit the 2018 NCAA champion Dukes to just seven goals, and the 11-goal margin of victory was the biggest in the history of the UNC-JMU series.

TAR HEELS DOMINATE DEFENDING NCAA CHAMP JAMES MADISON, 18-7
• Second-ranked North Carolina got five goals and an assist from Jamie Ortega and three goals and a career-high six assists from Katie Hoeg to beat fourth-ranked James Madison, 18-7, on Feb. 9 in Kenan Stadium in the 2019 season opener for both teams. The game was a rematch of the 2018 NCAA Tournament semifinal, when the Dukes beat the Tar Heels, 15-13. JMU went on to win the NCAA championship two days later.
• This time, Carolina led from the beginning and did not allow the Dukes to score in the first 8:03 of the game. UNC took a 4-0 lead before JMU scored and led, 9-3, at halftime. The Tar Heels widened their lead in the second half and posted the biggest margin of victory in the history of the UNC-JMU series.
• Carolina dominated the draw, 22-5, led by a career-high nine draw controls from Gianna Bowe and eight from freshman Brooklyn Neumen in her first collegiate game. Ally Mastroianni added four.

PRESEASON ALL-ACC POLL & INDIVIDUAL HONORS
• The Atlantic Coast Conference released its preseason coaches poll on Feb. 6, and the conference's coaches predicted North Carolina will finish second in the league behind Boston College.
• Three Tar Heels made the 2019 Preseason All-ACC Team: junior attacker Katie Hoeg, sophomore attacker Jamie Ortega and sophomore goalie Taylor Moreno.
• The ACC head coaches made Boston College the conference favorite after the Eagles reached the NCAA Tournament final a season ago. BC received 63 points in voting from the ACC coaches, and UNC was second with 55 points. The rest of the preseason ACC poll was No. 3 Virginia Tech, No. 4 Virginia, No. 5 Syracuse, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 7 Duke and No. 8 Louisville.

SIX TAR HEELS EARN PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA HONORS FROM ILWOMEN
• Katie Hoeg, Jamie Ortega and Emma Trenchard all earned 2019 preseason All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse's 2019 Face-Off Yearbook. Hoeg earned first-team honors at attack, Ortega was a second-team attacker and Trenchard was a third-team defender.
• Three Tar Heels earned honorable mention All-America honors, including senior midfielder Kara Klages, senior defender Charlotte Sofield and sophomore goalie Taylor Moreno.
• Hoeg, a junior, earned first-team All-America honors in 2018 after leading Carolina with a career-high and school-record 89 points and a UNC single-season record 50 assists.
• Ortega was the 2018 ACC Rookie of the Year. She posted what is likely the best freshman season in Carolina history, setting school freshman records for most goals with 70 (20 more than the previous freshman record of 50) and most points with 86. Her 86 points were the second-most by a Tar Heel in UNC history (behind Hoeg's 89). Ortega's 70 goals were the second-most in a season by a Tar Heel (Molly Hendrick had 72 in 2017).
• Trenchard earned a spot with the U.S. Women's National Training Team in the fall of 2018 under head coach Jenny Levy. She started all 21 games at defender for the Tar Heels last spring.