GoHeels Exclusive: World Champs Q&A

North Carolina women's lacrosse sophomores Elizabeth Hillman and Brooklyn Neumen spent their summer with the USA Lacrosse U19 team that captured gold at the 2019 World Lacrosse Women's U19 World Championship in Peterborough, Ontario. GoHeels.com recently talked with the two Tar Heel standouts about their experience with the national team and how Carolina helped prepare them to thrive on the international stage.

On winning the World Championship and hearing the national anthem after getting the trophy:

Brooklyn Neumen: "It's kind of surreal. The moment in general is just surreal to me. It was really cool being surrounded by our teammates. We got really close to our whole team and it was really cool meeting girls from all over the U.S. and around the world. It was just a really cool moment."

Elizabeth Hillman: "You think about what it would be like, leading up to it. Even before the game you think about what that feeling could be after, but you never really understand it until you're in it. It's a different feeling than any other championship I've won before. After the game when we brought the trophy over to our team, everyone starting signing the national anthem together. It was really, really cool."

On being teammates with rivals from other college programs:

EH: "It was fun, honestly, and a lot easier than people would think. Once we all made the team and throughout training camps, we were all on the same level and going for the same goal. It was easy to throw (rivalries) away - we all became friends and became close to compete for one main goal."

BN: "We all come from different places but we connected with the same goal of wanting to win the world championship and we completed that goal. Over the course of a full year of always bonding and sticking together and working hard through very strenuous training camps, it was a really cool experience."

On differences in the international game:

BN: "I think it's different in that everybody plays the game a little differently from different places. It was really cool just getting to play teams from around the world, you get to know everybody."

EH: "It's really cool to see every team's different style of play. In college we're almost all from the U.S. so it's fun to see how different countries play the game."

On how being at Carolina prepared them for the international level:

BN: "Because Carolina has such high expectations and we are such a high end program, there's a lot of hard work that goes into being here. We play a lot of really good teams, so the games are always close and intense. Translating that idea of continuously having to work hard with other teams and play teams that are also just as good as you also prepared us for those teams that are just as fast and have just as good of stick skills."

EH: "Carolina lacrosse has definitely prepared us to play (at that level). We played eight games in 10 days (at the World Championships). The stuff we do here in the fall, the training we go through...it mentally prepared us as well as physically. Jenny really instills in us that you're going to be tired and it's going to be hard, but you can fight through that, and that was really helpful playing in those 10 days. In general, the leadership that is taught here and a lot of stuff that we do can be taken beyond lacrosse."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elizabeth Hillman

Brooklyn Neumen

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