Another Top-5 Matchup As No. 1 Women's Lacrosse Visits No. 4 Notre Dame

Saturday, April 10

Notre Dame, Ind.

3 PM

North Carolina

Notre Dame

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

Another Top-5 Matchup As No. 1 Women's Lacrosse Visits No. 4 Notre Dame

April 9, 2021 | Women's Lacrosse

UNC Notes Watch Live Stats

Matchup: North Carolina (11-0, 5-0 ACC) vs. Notre Dame (6-2, 3-2 ACC)
UNC Ranks: No. 1/1/1 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Notre Dame Ranks: No. 4/5/4 (IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse/USLacrosse)
Date: Saturday April 10, 2021
Site: Notre Dame, Ind. (Arlotta Stadium)
Time: 3 p.m.
Watch: ACC Network (stream live)
Live Stats

• Carolina will play its second consecutive top-five opponent on Saturday when it visits Notre Dame, which is ranked No. 4 nationally by the IWLCA and USLacrosse (and No. 5 by Inside Lacrosse). The Tar Heels and Fighting Irish will take the opening draw just after 3 p.m. on Saturday at Arlotta Stadium on the ACC Network.
• UNC is coming off a 17-6 win over No. 2 Syracuse a week ago.
• Off to a 11-0 start in 2021 ties the the best start in school history (2014), Carolina has topped all the national polls every week in 2021 and is 9-0 against IWLCA-ranked opponents.
• 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
Team
• Rankings: The Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 in the nation by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and USLacrosse.
• Scoring Streak: Carolina has scored 10 or more goals in 27 consecutive games (dating to 2019 vs. Notre Dame).
• Winning Streak: UNC has won 18 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 11-0 in 2021, matching the best start to a season in program history (2014).
• NCAA Leaders: The Tar Heels lead the nation in several statistical categories: save percentage (.615), scoring defense (5.45), scoring margin (11.45) and fewest turnovers committed (10.91). UNC's also boasts the nation's third-best scoring offense (16.91) and fifth-best shooting percentage (.520).
• Stellar D: UNC has held opponents to single-digit goals in all 11 games this season. UNC's defense has limited opponents to a shooting percentage of .256, best in school history.
• Scoring Margin: The Tar Heels have outscored their 2021 opponents by 126 goals in 11 games, 186-60 (a scoring margin of +11.45 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.
• Jamie Ortega (65 points, second in the nation) and Katie Hoeg (57, third) have scored or assisted on 122 of Carolina's 186 goals in 2021.

Jamie Ortega
• Attacker Jamie Ortega is Carolina's career leader in goals and has scored two or more goals in 55 of 60 career games.
• Ortega has scored five or more goals 23 times as a Tar Heel, including five times in 2021.
• Ortega has scored four or more goals in nine of 11 games this season,
• Ortega has scored at least one goal in 25 consecutive games. She ranks second in the nation in goals with 48.
• Ortega has tallied at least one point in 54 consecutive games and 59 of 60 in her career.
• Ortega also is tied for sixth in Carolina history in career assists with 77.
• Over the last five games, Ortega has scored goals on 26 of 33 shots, a blistering shooting percentage of .788.

Katie Hoeg
• Attacker Katie Hoeg holds the UNC career record for assists and has 521 career multi-assist games.
• Hoeg leads the ACC and is third in the nation with 3.18 assists per game. She is second in the nation with 35 assists.
• Hoeg's 35 assists in 2021 are already the sixth-highest single-season total in school history.

Taylor Moreno
• Goalie Taylor Moreno has a career record of 40-5. The UNC career record for goalie wins is 49 (Caylee Waters, 2014-17).
• Moreno has started 44 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 last week versus Syracuse).
• Moreno leads the nation and the ACC in goals against average (a career-best 5.46) and save percentage (a career-high .619). 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 47 points, ranking 13th in the nation.
• Growney is second on the team behind Ortega in goals with 31.
• This season, Growney already has set career highs in goals (31), assists (16) and points (47).

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.

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 Crushes 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 13 caused turnovers in 2021, followed by Trenchard with 12. Emily Nalls (21), Trenchard (20) and Catie Woodruff (15) lead in ground balls, often using their speed to turn those loose balls into quick offensive fast-break opportunities.

Series History vs. Notre Dame
• Carolina leads the all-time series with Notre Dame, 8-1, including a 7-1 UNC advantage since the Fighting Irish joined the ACC prior to the 2014 season.
• UNC is 5-0 against Notre Dame in Chapel Hill, 2-1 at Notre Dame and 5-1 vs. the Fighting Irish in the regular season.
• In 2019, Notre Dame won the most recent meeting (see below for more details).
• Prior to Notre Dame joining the ACC in 2014, the two squads met just once, with the Tar Heels taking a 16-10 win over Notre Dame in the 2009 NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in Chapel Hill.

Last Meeting
• The last time these two teams played was in 2019, and it was the last game the Tar Heels failed to score double-digit goals (28 games ago). On March 31, 2019, at Notre Dame, the Irish beat UNC, 9-7. Since then, Carolina has scored at least 10 goals in 27 consecutive games.
• Samantha Lynch scored three consecutive second-half goals and led a 4-1 Notre Dame run to beat Carolina, 9-7, amid snow flurries at Arlotta Stadium. Notre Dame won 11 of 17 draws.
• Taylor Moreno had 11 saves for Carolina. Samantha Giacolone had 14 for Notre Dame.
• Katie Hoeg led the Tar Heels with five points on a goal and four assists. Jamie Ortega scored twice and added an assist, and Tayler Warehime scored twice.
• The Fighting Irish finished the game on a 4-1 run in the final 11 minutes.

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 318 career points, most in UNC history.
• Ortega has 308 points, second in school history behind Hoeg.
• Hoeg's 197 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 231 career goals and 3.85 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."

Moreno & Ortega Sweep Awards After Syracuse Win
• Taylor Moreno and Jamie Ortega swept weekly national and conference player-of-the-week awards on April 6 after their performances in the 17-6 win over Syracuse on April 3.
• Ortega is the IWLCA Offensive Player of the Week and was the co-Atlantic Coast Conference Offensive Player of the Week with Boston College's Charlotte North.
• Moreno grabbed both the IWLCA and ACC Defensive Player of the Week awards.

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. 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.