No. 1 Vs. No. 2 Saturday When Syracuse Visits Women's Lacrosse

Matchup: North Carolina (10-0, 4-0 ACC) vs. Syracuse (6-0, 4-0 ACC)
UNC Ranks: No. 1/1/1 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Syracuse Ranks: No. 2/2/2 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Date: Saturday April 3, 2021
Site: Chapel Hill (Dorrance Field)
Time: 11 a.m.
Watch: ACC Network
Live Stats

• The top two teams in the nation and the Atlantic Coast Conference will meet when North Carolina hosts Syracuse on Saturday April 3 in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels and Orange will take the opening draw just after 11 a.m. at Dorrance Field on ACC Network.
• Tickets for the game are sold out. If additional tickets become available, check back with @uncwlax and GoHeels.com for more details.
• Off to a 10-0 start in 2021 that's included wins over eight ranked opponents, Carolina has topped all the national polls every week in 2021.
• Syracuse enters Saturday's matchup ranked No. 2 nationally. The Orange has a 6-0 record, 4-0 in the ACC. Syracuse has conference wins over Notre Dame (twice), Duke and Virginia Tech, as well as non-conference wins over Stony Brook and Loyola.

Tar Heel Tidbits
• Rankings: The Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 in the nation by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and USLacrosse. Syracuse is No. 2 in all the same polls.
• Scoring Streak: Carolina has scored 10 or more goals in 26 consecutive games (dating to 2019).
• Winning Streak: UNC has won 17 consecutive games. The longest winning streak in school history is 20 games (17 in a row to end the 2016 season & 3-0 to start 2017).
• Hot Start: Carolina is 10-0 in 2021. The best start in school history is 11-0 in 2014.
• NCAA Leaders: The Tar Heels lead the nation in several statistical categories: save percentage (.612), scoring defense (5.40), scoring margin (11.50) and fewest turnovers committed (10.50). UNC's also boasts the nation's fourth-best scoring offense (16.90).
• Stellar D: UNC has held opponents to single-digit goals in all 10 games this season. UNC's defense has limited opponents to a shooting percentage of .254, best in school history.
• Scoring Margin: The Tar Heels have outscored their 2021 opponents by 115 goals in 10 games, 169-54 (a scoring margin of +11.5 goals per game that leads the nation in 2021 and is the best in school history). Carolina's closest game in 2021 has been a five-goal win (11-6) over No. 8 Florida on Feb. 19.
• Attacker Jamie Ortega is Carolina's career leader in goals and has scored two or more goals in 54 of 59 career games. She has scored five or more goals 22 times as a Tar Heel.
• Ortega has scored at least one goal in 24 consecutive games. She ranks second in the nation in goals with 43.
• Ortega has tallied at least one point in 53 consecutive games and 58 of 59 in her career.
• Attacker Katie Hoeg holds the UNC career record for assists and has 51 career multi-assist games.
• Hoeg leads the ACC in assists per game at 3.10 and is second in the nation with 31 total assists.
• Goalie Taylor Moreno has a career record of 39-5. She has started 43 consecutive games in the cage for the Tar Heels, beginning with the final five games of the 2018 season.
• Moreno has 15 career games with 10 or more saves, including three in 2021.
• Moreno leads the nation and the ACC in goals against average (5.40) and save percentage (.615).
• Moreno's 2021 goals-against average is 5.40, more than three goals per game better than her career average entering the 2021 season (9.12).

Mastroianni Wins Postgraduate Scholarship
• Senior midfielder Ally Mastroianni is among three Tar Heels and 52 Atlantic Coast Conference student-athletes selected as 2021 Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship Award recipients. Chris Gray (men's lacrosse), Rachel Jones (women's soccer) and Mastroianni (women's lacrosse) were part of the list of conference honorees announced on March 24.
• Teammate Katie Hoeg won the same honor in 2020.
• Mastroianni, from Martinsville, N.J., is pursuing a double major in media & journalism and communication studies and plans to pursue a master's degree in the field after graduation.
• The Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarships are awarded to selected student-athletes who intend to pursue a graduate degree following completion of their undergraduate requirements. Each recipient will receive $6,000 toward his or her graduate education. Those honored have performed with distinction in both the classroom and their respective sport, while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community.
• This year's class of postgraduate scholarship recipients will be highlighted in a one-hour show on ACC Network that will debut in May.

Five On Tewaaraton Watch List
• Five UNC seniors led the watch list for the sport's most prestigious award, the Tewaaraton Award given to the nation's top player.
• Tar Heels on the watch list include attacker Scottie Rose Growney, attacker Katie Hoeg, goalie Taylor Moreno, attacker Jamie Ortega and defender Emma Trenchard.
• UNC and Syracuse led the way with five players each on the watch list. Notre Dame and Northwestern each had four.

Ortega Breaks UNC Career Goals Record
• Jamie Ortega broke the UNC program record for career goals in the Feb. 28 win over Vanderbilt.
• Entering the game vs. Syracuse, Ortega has scored 226 goals, topping the previous record of 198 set by Abbey Friend from 2011-14.

Stout Defense Leads The Way
• Led by senior All-Americas Emma Trenchard and Taylor Moreno, the UNC defense has held each of its 10 2021 opponents to single-digit goals.
• UNC leads the nation in both scoring defense (5.40) and save percentage (.612).
• No Tar Heel opponent has scored more than the nine goals 11th-ranked Boston College scored on March 6.
• On March 13, UNC tied the school record for fewest goals allowed in a 22-1 win at No. 14 Virginia Tech.
• In the March 27 win over Mercer, UNC forced a season-high 21 turnovers.
• Caroline Wakefield leads the Tar Heels with 12 caused turnovers in 2021, while Emily Nalls and Trenchard lead in ground balls, often using their speed to turn those loose balls into quick offensive fast-break opportunities.

Series History vs. Syracuse
• Carolina leads the all-time series with Syracuse, 8-6, including four consecutive Tar Heel wins in the series.
• Saturday will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 2019 regular season in Chapel Hill.
• UNC has won four in a row and six of the last seven meetings in the series (since the start of the 2016 season). After Syracuse won four of the first five meetings in the series between 2001-14, Carolina has won seven of the last nine meetings starting in 2015.
• Carolina is 4-2 against Syracuse in ACC regular season games since the Orange joined the conference prior to the 2014 season.
• UNC is 3-1 against the Orange in Chapel Hill.

Last Meeting
• Katie Hoeg had a career-high six assists and Tayler Warehime tied her season high with four goals as sixth-ranked North Carolina beat third-ranked Syracuse, 11-5, April 13, 2019, in Chapel Hill.
• Taylor Moreno was stellar in goal throughout the game, making 12 saves.
• Moreno and the Tar Heel defense held Syracuse to a season-low in goals (five), the Orange's first single-digit scoring effort of the season. Syracuse's previous scoring low was 10 in a win over Notre Dame.

Hoeg & Ortega Are The Top-Scoring Duo In Tar Heel History
• Senior attackers Katie Hoeg and Jamie Ortega are the top two scorers in Carolina women's lacrosse history.
• Hoeg has 311 career points, most in UNC history.
• Ortega has 300 points, second in school history behind Hoeg.
• Hoeg's 193 assists and 2.47 career assists per game are the best in UNC history by a wide margin. Her 73 assists in 2019 are the UNC single-season record.
• Ortega's 226 career goals and 3.83 career goals per game are the best in school history by a comfortable margin. She recorded a UNC-record 81 goals and 112 points as a sophomore in 2019.
• Hoeg and Ortega shared 2020 National Player of the Year honors from Inside Lacrosse. In just seven games last year, they combined for 97 points. Hoeg had 52 points on 22 goals and 30 assists, while Ortega had 45 points on 32 goals and 13 assists (prior to the cancellation of the season due to Covid-19).
• Ortega and Hoeg combined for 216 of Carolina's 490 points in 2019, becoming the first pair of 100-point scorers in program history.

Ortega Named IWLCA National co-Offensive Player of the Week
• Jamie Ortega scored a season-high six goals to lead the top-ranked Tar Heels to a 21-9 win over Boston College on March 6. She spearheaded an 11-2 run with four goals in the second half, extending her goals streak to 20 consecutive games and posting her 50th career multi-goal game. The senior attacker scored her 200th career goal in the first half on UNC's second goal of the game and also added a ground ball and caused turnover to her stat line.

Ortega Named ACC co-Offensive Player of the Week
• Jamie Ortega and Boston College senior attacker Charlotte North were named the ACC Women's Lacrosse Co-Offensive Players of the Week on March 2.
• Ortega broke the UNC career goals record on Sunday in a win over Vanderbilt when she scored her 199th career goal, breaking the previous record set by Abbey Friend from 2011-14. A native of Centereach, New York, she posted eight goals and four assists in two Tar Heel wins last week

Trenchard & Growney Sweep Named ACC & Player of the Week Honors
• Senior defender Emma Trenchard was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week on Feb. 23 and senior Scottie Rose Growney was the ACC Offensive Player of the Week.
• Growney scored seven goals on 12 shots as UNC rolled past Florida and High Point. She scored four goals, including two in each half, Friday against Florida. She scored two of her goals during a key 5-1 second-half run as UNC pulled away from a one-goal lead and put the game out of reach. She added three goals, two assists and a draw control Sunday against HPU.
• Trenchard was solid across the field in UNC's weekend wins. On Friday against Florida, she marked first-team All-America Shannon Kavanagh, limiting the senior to just one goal while also forcing a turnover. On Sunday against High Point, she initiated the UNC attack on a pair of fast breaks and recorded two assists (she had one career assist entering the game). She also added two ground balls and a draw control.

Six Preseason All-Americas
• Six Tar Heels earned 2021 Preseason All-America accolades from Inside Lacrosse for 2021.
• Four UNC players grabbed first-team honors, most of any school in the nation. That quartet includes graduate student attacker Katie Hoeg, senior attacker Jamie Ortega, graduate student midfielder Kerrigan Miller and senior defender Emma Trenchard.
• Senior goalie Taylor Moreno was on the third team, and senior attacker Scottie Rose Growney earned honorable mention.
• The honors give Carolina returning All-Americas at every position on the field—attack (Hoeg, Ortega, Growney), midfield (Miller), defense (Trenchard) and goalie (Moreno).

All-Americas Miller & Borque Join As Grad Transfers
• A pair of Inside Lacrosse Media All-Americans during the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season, Katie Bourque and Kerrigan Miller, have joined the Tar Heel lacrosse program as graduate transfers.
• Borque and Miller spent the past four years at Dartmouth and Southern California, respectively. Both players are eligible to play in 2021 and have one season of eligibility remaining after the NCAA granted spring student-athletes an extra year due to the 2020 season being cut short. Unfortunately, Borque suffered a knee injury in the Fall of 2020.
• Miller was a four-time All-America midfielder at USC and member of the U.S. national team, coached there by UNC's Jenny Levy. She also is a childhood friend of UNC's Katie Hoeg from their days growing up in Long Island. Miller earned second-team All-America honors from ILWomen in 2020. The midfielder finished second on her team in ground balls (16) and caused turnovers (8) and tied for second in draw controls (13). She also tallied 11 points (10 goals and one assist).
• The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2016 according to ILWomen, Miller received Mountain Pacific Sport Federation Rookie of the Year honors in 2017. She then followed that up by being named the Pac-12 Midfielder of the Year in 2018 and 2019. In 66 games at USC, she hit the century mark in five key statistical categories: goals (104), points (143), ground balls (158), caused turnovers (120) and draw controls (157).
• Bourque garnered third-team All-America honors from ILWomen in 2020 while leading Dartmouth to a 5-0 record and a No. 9 ranking in the final IWLCA national poll. One of the nation's top scorers, she paced the Big Green in goals (21) and points (27). She finished the year ranked seventh nationally in goals per game (4.2) and tied for 12th in points per game (5.4).

Sparkling Home Stadium
• Carolina plays in one of the nation's finest women's lacrosse facilities.
• UNC opened its new, on-campus UNC Lacrosse & Soccer Stadium on March 2, 2019. In the inaugural women's lacrosse game played there, the third-ranked Tar Heels downed fifth-ranked Northwestern, 21-11.
• UNC went 6-1 in its new stadium in 2019 and 3-0 in the shortened 2020 season.
• Construction began on the facility in May 2017. It is built on the site of the old Fetzer Field, which housed six sports on campus from 1935 through 2017 and where the women's lacrosse team posted a 139-27 record.
• In September 2019, the stadium was dedicated as Dorrance Field in honor of longtime Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance.

No. 1 Vs. No. 2 Saturday When Syracuse Visits Women's Lacrosse

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Katie Bourque

Scottie Rose Growney

Katie Hoeg

Ally Mastroianni

Kerrigan Miller

Taylor Moreno

Emily Nalls

Jamie Ortega

Emma Trenchard

Caroline Wakefield

Tayler Warehime

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics