Carolina Finishes Fall Second In Learfield Directors’ Cup Standings

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Women's soccer's 23rd national championship was the top highlight of a wildly successful fall semester of University of North Carolina athletic accomplishments, which has led to a second place showing for the Tar Heels in the 2024-25 Learfield Directors' Cup standings.

All seven of Carolina's fall sports have scored points in the Director's Cup standings led by women's soccer's first-place finish and 100 points. UNC amassed 397.50 points, trailing only Stanford (413.00) and more than 100 points ahead of third-place Virginia (293.50).

UNC and Washington are the only schools in the top 10 to score points in every sport it sponsors in the fall. This is the third time all of Carolina's fall sports are eligible to contribute points to the overall Director's Cup finish (also in 2015-16 and 2021-22).

Carolina field hockey tied for third place and provided 83 points, men's cross country placed sixth (73.5 points), women's cross country was 11th (66), volleyball tied for 17th (50), men's soccer tied for 33rd (25) and football is playing in a bowl game for the sixth consecutive season (point total to be determined).

Led by Kate Faasse, the nation's leading goal scorer, and the national coaching staff of the year, the Tar Heels won the NCAA women's soccer title for the first time since 2012 with a 1-0 victory over Wake Forest on December 9 in Cary.

Damon Nahas was named interim head coach in August four days before the first game of the regular season when legendary Hall of Fame coach Anson Dorrance retired. Nahas led the Tar Heels to a berth in the ACC championship game and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. There, Carolina swept its way to six victories, outscoring the competition 18-1, capped by a 3-0 win over Duke in the College Cup semifinals and the shutout win over the Demon Deacons for the title.

Sophomore Olivia Thomas scored the game-winner on a breath-taking free kick in the 62nd minute to give Carolina its 22nd NCAA women's soccer title, one more than every other school in the sport's history have combined to win.

The 22 NCAA titles are more than any other Division I women's program in all sports and are the fifth most in NCAA history among all men's and women's programs.

Prior to the national championship game, Nahas was named the program's permanent head coach, just the second in the team's history following Dorrance's 45 years at the helm.

ACC Coach of the Year Erin Matson, ACC Offensive Player of the Year Ryleigh Heck and ACC Tournament MVP Charly Bruder led the field hockey team a 20-1 record, a UNC-record 27th ACC title and 28th appearance in the final four.

All-Americas Parker Wolfe and Ethan Strand paced men's cross country to its third-straight top-10 finish. Wolfe placed seventh and became Carolina's first male to earn All-America honors in cross country four times.

Taryn Parks and Brynn Brown also earned All-America honors in leading the women's team to an 11th-place finish in the NCAA Championship, its fourth top-20 performance in the last five seasons.

Second-year head coach Mike Schall directed the volleyball team to a 23-8 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels went 14-6 in ACC play, defeated Yale in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and took a set off eventual NCAA champion Penn State in the second round.

Men's soccer went 9-4-5 to qualify for NCAA play for the 24th time in 26 seasons.

Carolina football ended the regular season 6-6 and will play Connecticut at 11 a.m. on December 28th in Boston in the Fenway Bowl. Running back Omarion Hampton and guard Willie Lampkin earned first-team All-America honors.

Hampton was second in the nation in rushing yards (1,660) and yards per game (138.3), posted 10 100-yard games and was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. He finished his three seasons as the fourth-leading rusher in UNC history with 3,565 yards.

Lampkin won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the top offensive lineman in the ACC.

Following Stanford, UNC and Virginia in the fall standings are Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Penn State, BYU, Washington, Georgetown and Princeton.

Carolina placed seventh in the final 2023-24 Learfield Directors' Cup standings. It was the Tar Heels' fifth-consecutive top-10 finish and their eighth top-10 effort in the past nine years in the all-sports competition that measures NCAA post-season success. The seventh-place finish was UNC's 25th Top 10 in the 30-year history of the competition, the third most among all schools in Division I.

University of North Carolina Athletics

Carolina Finishes Fall Second In Learfield Directors’ Cup Standings

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