Women's Lacrosse Hosts Virginia For A Pair This Weekend

Friday, April 16

Chapel Hill

5 PM

North Carolina

Virginia

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

April 14, 2021 | Women's Lacrosse

Watch Friday Friday Live Stats Watch Sunday Sunday Live Stats UNC Notes

Matchup: North Carolina (12-0, 6-0 ACC) vs. Virginia (8-4, 3-4 ACC)
UNC Ranks: No. 1/1/1 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Virginia Ranks: No. 7/6/7 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Date: Friday April 16, 2021, and Sunday April 18, 2021
Site: Chapel Hill (Dorrance Field)
Time: 5 p.m. (Friday) and 1 p.m. (Sunday)
Watch: ACC Network Extra

• North Carolina's women's lacrosse team will play its final two home games of the 2021 regular season when it hosts Virginia for a pair of games at Dorrance Field on Friday and Sunday.
• The Tar Heels and Cavaliers will play at 5 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be streamed live by ACC Network Extra.
• ACCNX is a streaming-only viewing option available via the ESPN app that broadcasts sporting events not available on ESPN's linear television networks. ACCNX access is included if your cable, satellite or streaming service provider carries ACC Network. Fans will need to use their account with their cable, satellite or streaming provider to log in at the WatchESPN website or download the ESPN app for their mobile or streaming device.
• Sunday's game will mark the final regular season home game for seven Tar Heel seniors and graduate students: Katie Borque, Katie Hoeg, Kerrigan Miller, Claire Nappi, Caroline Wakefield, Kayla Wood and Catie Woodruff.
• Carolina is coming off its closest game of the season, a thrilling, 11-10 victory in a driving rainstorm at No. 4 Notre Dame last Saturday.
• The Tar Heels (12-0) are off to the best start in program history.
• UNC has won 19 consecutive games entering Friday's game with UVA. The longest winning streak in school history is 20 games.
• Carolina is 10-0 this season against IWLCA-ranked opponents.

Tar Heel Tidbits
Team
• Rankings: The Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 in the nation by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and USLacrosse and have topped all the pools every week in 2021.
• Scoring Streak: Carolina has scored 10 or more goals in 28 consecutive games (dating to 2019 vs. Notre Dame).
• Winning Streak: UNC has won 19 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).
• Top Start: Carolina is 12-0 in 2021, the best start to a season in program history (the previous record was 11 in 2014).

• Among the NCAA Leaders: The Tar Heels are among the national leaders in several statistical categories: scoring margin (1st, 10.58), scoring defense (2nd, 5.83), scoring offense (8th, 16.42), save percentage (2nd, .593), fewest turnovers committed (1st, 11.08) and shooting percentage (7th, .505).
• Stellar D: UNC has held opponents to single-digit goals in 11 of 12 games this season. UNC's defense has limited opponents to a shooting percentage of .268, best in school history.
• Scoring Margin: The Tar Heels have outscored their 2021 opponents by 127 goals in 12 games, 197-70 (a scoring margin of +10.58 goals per game that leads the nation in 2021 and is the best in school history).
• Two of the Nation's Top Five Scorers: Jamie Ortega (70 points, second in the nation) and Katie Hoeg (59, fifth).

Jamie Ortega
• Attacker Jamie Ortega is Carolina's career leader in goals and has scored two or more goals in 56 of 61 career games.
• Ortega has scored five or more goals 24 times as a Tar Heel, including six times in the last seven games.
• Ortega has scored four or more goals in 10 of 12 games this season,
• Ortega has scored at least one goal in 26 consecutive games. She ranks third in the nation in goals with 53.
• Ortega has tallied at least one point in 55 consecutive games and 60 of 61 in her career.
• Ortega also is tied for sixth in Carolina history in career assists with 77.
• Over the last six games, Ortega has scored goals on 31 of 42 shots, a blistering shooting percentage of .738.
• Ortega ranks fifth nationally with a shooting percentage of .688.

Katie Hoeg
• Attacker Katie Hoeg holds the UNC career record for assists and has 53 career multi-assist games.
• Hoeg leads the ACC and is fourth in the nation with 3.08 assists per game. She is second in the nation with 37 assists.
• Hoeg's 37 assists in 2021 are the fifth-highest single-season total in school history.

Taylor Moreno
• Goalie Taylor Moreno has a career record of 41-5. The UNC career record for goalie wins is 49 (Caylee Waters, 2014-17).
• Moreno has started 45 consecutive games in the cage for the Tar Heels, beginning with the final five games of the 2018 season.
• Moreno has 16 career games with 10 or more saves, including four in 2021 (and a season-high 11 on April 3 versus Syracuse).
• Moreno leads the ACC and second nationally in goals against average (a career-best 5.90) and save percentage (a career-high .593). Her goals-against average is more than three goals per game better than her career average entering the 2021 season (9.12).

Scottie Rose Growney
• Attacker Scottie Rose Growney is Carolina's third-leading scorer with 48 points, ranking 21st in the nation.
• Growney is second on the team behind Ortega in goals with 32.
• This season, Growney already has set career highs in goals (32), assists (16) and points (48).

Nine Midseason All-Americas
• An impressive nine of 12 regular Carolina starters earned 2021 Midseason All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse.
• Five Tar Heels grabbed first-team honors at each position on the field: attackers Katie Hoeg and Jamie Ortega, midfielder Ally Mastroianni, defender Emma Trenchard and goalie Taylor Moreno.
• Attacker Scottie Rose Growney was on the second team, and defender Catie Woodruff was on the third team. Midfielder Kerrigan Miller and defender Caroline Wakefield earned honorable mention.

Mastroianni Wins Postgraduate Scholarship
• Senior midfielder Ally Mastroianni is among three Tar Heels and 52 ACC 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.

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 Is UNC Career Goals Leader
• Jamie Ortega broke the UNC program record for career goals in the Feb. 28 win over Vanderbilt.
• Entering the weekend versus Virginia, Ortega has scored 236 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 11 of 12 2021 opponents to single-digit goals.
• UNC is second in the nation in both scoring defense (5.83) and save percentage (.593).
• 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 15 caused turnovers in 2021, followed by Trenchard with 13. Emily Nalls (23), Trenchard (20) and Catie Woodruff (16) lead in ground balls, often using their speed to turn those loose balls into quick offensive fast-break opportunities.

Series History vs. Virginia
• Carolina leads the all-time series with Virginia, 28-13. The Tar Heels have won 17 of the last 18 games in the series, including eight in a row.
• In 2020, top-ranked North Carolina scored eight of the game's final nine goals to rally for an 18-12 win over seventh-ranked Virginia in Charlottesville. Katie Hoeg paced the Tar Heels in the back-and-forth affair, scoring four goals and dishing out two assists. Jamie Ortega tallied a game-high five goals.
• On March 10, 2018. Jamie Ortega, then a freshman, finished with zero points, marking the only time in 61 career games she's been held scoreless.
• Carolina head coach Jenny Levy played at Virginia from 1988-92, where she was a teammate of UVA head coach Julie Myers. Levy, then known as Jenny Slingluff, was a two-time first-team All-America attacker. She was also the Most Outstanding Attacker of the 1991 NCAA Tournament, leading the Cavaliers to their first-ever NCAA championship by scoring three goals in the title game.

Close Win at Notre Dame
• Jamie Ortega scored four of her five goals in the second half and lifted top-ranked North Carolina to an 11-10 win at No. 4 Notre Dame on a wet April 10 at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend.
• Carolina led in the early going, 5-1. The Fighting Irish ended the first half on a 6-1 run and grabbed a 7-6 lead at the break, UNC's first halftime deficit of the season.
• The Tar Heels put together a 3-0 run in a steady rainstorm coming out of halftime (with two of the goals coming from Ortega) and took a 9-7 lead with 17:14 to go.
• Taylor Moreno and the UNC defense allowed double-digit goals for the first time this season but held the Irish scoreless for the first 14:56 of the second half, seizing control of the game and securing Carolina's 19th consecutive win.

Big Win Over Syracuse
• Top-ranked Carolina closed the game on a 16-2 run and beat No. 2 Syracuse, 17-6, on April 3 at Dorrance Field.
• The Tar Heels spotted the Orange a 4-1 lead less than 10 minutes into the game, then scored 16 of the next 18 goals to finish the game. Taylor Moreno (11-0) and the UNC defense held Syracuse scoreless for nearly 29 consecutive minutes, turning a 4-1, first-half deficit into an 11-4 lead with 21:21 left in the game.
• Carolina scored its 17 goals on just 24 shots, posting a shooting percentage of .708 as a team.
• Jamie Ortega led the way offensively with a season-high eight points on five goals and three assists, adding two ground balls and a caused turnover. Katie Hoeg posted three goals and four assists, while Scottie Rose Growney scored four times.
• Ally Mastroianni played one of her best games of the season in the midfield, tallying two goals, two assists and seven draw controls. Fellow midfielder Elizabeth Hillman added a goal, an assist, three draw controls, two caused turnovers and two ground balls.
• Moreno tied her season high with 11 saves (her 16th career game with 10 or more), improving her career record in the cage to 40-5.

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 320 career points, most in UNC history.
• Ortega has 313 points, second in school history behind Hoeg.
• Hoeg's 199 assists and 2.49 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 236 career goals and 3.87 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.
• Head coach Jenny Levy told US Lacrosse in April, "Jamie and Katie are just a tandem that will go down in lacrosse history as great. They can score and feed in so many different ways, it's not something that is a script for them. They're reading what defenses are giving them, and when you play against that defensively, it's very difficult to defend."

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. 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).

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.
• 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.