Tar Heels Top Duke, 19-5, To Clinch ACC No. 2 Seed

Saturday, April 20

Durham, N.C.

7 PM

North Carolina

12-3 (5-2ACC)

Duke

9-7 (2-5ACC)

North Carolina

Duke

Carolina clinched the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament with the win.

Photo by: Duke Athletics

April 20, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Final Stats (.pdf)ACC Tournament Bracket

DURHAM, N.C.—Third-ranked North Carolina scored seven consecutive goals midway through the game and beat 13th-ranked Duke, 19-5, to close the Atlantic Coast Conference women's lacrosse regular season at Koskinen Stadium on Saturday night.

UNC (5-2 ACC) finished tied with Notre Dame and Syracuse for second place in the ACC behind Boston College (7-0).  The Tar Heels will be the No. 2 seed in next week's ACC Tournament based on goal differential.

Jamie Ortega had six goals and two assists to lead the Tar Heels. Olivia Ferrucci added a career-best five goals, and Katie Hoeg had two goals and fie assists. Kara Klages and Ally Mastroianni each scored twice, and Gianna Bowe and Ida Farinolt both scored once. Emma Trenchard had her first career assist.

With the victory, Carolina improved to 12-3 overall, 5-2 in the ACC.  Duke fell to 9-7, 2-5.  The Tar Heels have won nine in a row, 12 of the last 13 and 17 of the last 20 meetings in the series with the Blue Devils.

The game was close in the early going before the Tar Heels seized control midway through the first half. Ortega started the game on fire, tallying four goals and an assist before halftime to give Carolina a 9-3 lead at the break.

UNC closed the first period on a 5-0 run, then scored the first two and seven of the first eight goals in the second half to seize control.

NOTABLES
• The game was originally scheduled to be played on Friday evening but was moved to Saturday due to storms in the area.
• Hoeg had five assists vs. Duke to bring her career total to 109, second-best in school history to Ela Hazar's 121.
• Hoeg's 50 assists this season tie her own UNC single-season school record of 50, set last year.
• Taylor Moreno (12-3) started the game and played the first 54 minutes in goal, making five saves before giving way to senior Elise Hennessey.
• UNC out-shot Duke, 36-17, and won 20 ground balls to Duke's 10. The Tar Heels forced 20 Blue Devils and turned it over just nine times, including only three times in the second half.
• Carolina now leads the all-time series with Duke, 24-14.
• Both teams will return to action next week in the ACC Tournament in Chestnut Hill, Mass., beginning on Wednesday.

QUOTABLE
UNC Head Coach Jenny Levy after the game:
"I'm really happy with tonight's game.  I really didn't know what to expect as far as it's a Duke-Carolina matchup, and that's always a good game. I just thought we played a complete game. I loved the energy we played with, the intensity. I thought we played on our toes and with our heads on a swivel.

"It was just people doing the little things really well, and doing them together, whether it was our draw or elsewhere. They beat us on the draw, but I thought we competed really well early on the draw. I thought that was a big difference in the game because Duke gets so much momentum off the draw.

"Obviously, my defense was great. Holding a Duke offense that has been putting up goals all season to five goals is great. I love what we did offensively. I thought we were super-aggressive, had a nice blend of one-on-one stuff and feeds. We didn't as well as we'd like to, but credit Duke's goalie. It was a great overall team win."

UP NEXT
The Tar Heels will be back in action on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, hosted by Boston College. UNC will play Virginia Tech at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.