University of North Carolina Athletics
The field hockey team won the NCAA title in November.
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Tar Heels Lead In 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup Through Fall
January 11, 2024 | General
National Player of the Year Ryleigh Heck's game-winning goal led the Tar Heels to their 11th field hockey national championship and catapulted the University of North Carolina to the top of the Learfield Directors' Cup standings after completion of the seven fall Division I championships.
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Under the direction of first-year head coach Erin Matson, the Carolina field hockey team defeated Northwestern in a shootout in November at Karen Shelton Stadium, which gave the Tar Heels their 50th NCAA title and 100 points in the Directors' Cup standings.
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Field hockey was one of four UNC sports to finish in the top five in the fall in NCAA competition – men's and women's soccer both advanced to the quarterfinals and tied for fifth, and men's cross country raced to a sixth-place finish. Men's cross country added 73.5 points, the soccer teams accounted for 73 points apiece, women's cross country contributed 28 points with a 32nd-place finish and football added 25 points.
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Carolina amassed 372.5 points in the fall, 1.5 points ahead of Stanford, which had a second- and two fifth-place finishes. Texas, Notre Dame and Tennessee round out the top five.
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UNC and Notre Dame are two of six ACC schools in the top 13 in the standings after the fall championships. Virginia is 10th, Syracuse 11th, Florida State 12th and Louisville 13th.
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The Tar Heels placed eighth in the 2022-23 final standings. It was Carolina's fourth consecutive top-10 finish and seventh in the past eight years of the all-sports competition. UNC has 24 top-10s in the 29-year history of the Directors' Cup; only Stanford and Florida (with 29 apiece) have more.
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Under the direction of first-year head coach Erin Matson, the Carolina field hockey team defeated Northwestern in a shootout in November at Karen Shelton Stadium, which gave the Tar Heels their 50th NCAA title and 100 points in the Directors' Cup standings.
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Field hockey was one of four UNC sports to finish in the top five in the fall in NCAA competition – men's and women's soccer both advanced to the quarterfinals and tied for fifth, and men's cross country raced to a sixth-place finish. Men's cross country added 73.5 points, the soccer teams accounted for 73 points apiece, women's cross country contributed 28 points with a 32nd-place finish and football added 25 points.
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Carolina amassed 372.5 points in the fall, 1.5 points ahead of Stanford, which had a second- and two fifth-place finishes. Texas, Notre Dame and Tennessee round out the top five.
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UNC and Notre Dame are two of six ACC schools in the top 13 in the standings after the fall championships. Virginia is 10th, Syracuse 11th, Florida State 12th and Louisville 13th.
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The Tar Heels placed eighth in the 2022-23 final standings. It was Carolina's fourth consecutive top-10 finish and seventh in the past eight years of the all-sports competition. UNC has 24 top-10s in the 29-year history of the Directors' Cup; only Stanford and Florida (with 29 apiece) have more.
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