Tar Heels Take On Northwestern For NCAA Championship

STORRS, Conn. – A season's worth of work has led to this: the UNC field hockey team is 20-0 and a win away from a national championship. And

With hundreds of hours of practice, conditioning, video study and team-building as a foundation, the top-ranked Tar Heels will take on No. 3 Northwestern (20-4) Sunday in the final game of the 2022 season. The winner takes home a new trophy – UNC is playing for its 10^th title in program history, while the Wildcats are looking for their second in a row.

Game time is 1:30 p.m. at the Sherman Family Sports Complex on the campus of the University of Connecticut. The action will air live on ESPNU.

The Tar Heels have avoided thinking of this game throughout the season, instead keeping the focus on the next game and the next game only. "We have purposely not talked about the national championship all season long," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "We had confidence in this year, but it was built day by day. This team was built day by day."

UNC's 2021 season also ended against Northwestern, but in the NCAA Tournament first round. Playing in Iowa City, the Wildcats won 2-0 and went on to claim their first national championship. Prior to that the Tar Heels had won three NCAA titles in a row.

With an exceptionally strong group of returners and an outstanding freshman class, expectations of UNC have been high all season and the Tar Heels have been in the No. 1 spot in the poll since late September. But in the locker room, all the focus has been on the upcoming game, whatever that might be.

"We've only talked about the next game, all season long, just one game at a time," Shelton said. "Now the next game is the national championship."

Notable
• North Carolina and Northwestern are meeting for the 11th time overall and the second consecutive season in NCAA Tournament play. In the 2021 tournament, the two faced off in a first-round game in Iowa City, Iowa, with the Wildcats winning 2-0. For the Tar Heels, the loss broke a streak of three straight national championships and 12 consecutive final four appearances. Northwestern went on to claim the program's first NCAA title.
• Carolina is the top overall seed in the NCAA field for the fourth time in the past five years. NU is the No. 2 seed.
• The Tar Heels are in the NCAA title game for a record 21st time. On Sunday, they'll play their record 106th NCAA Tournament game. A win would be their 77th in NCAA Tournament play, also a record.
• Carolina has won nine NCAA titles – 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2009, 2018, 2019 and 2020 – in program history, tied with Old Dominion for the most by any program.
• UNC won the 1997 NCAA title in Storrs, beating Princeton 4-3 in the semis and ODU 3-2 in the final.
• The Tar Heels finished the regular season undefeated for the fifth time in program history, the first since 2019. It's the 17th time that UNC has completed an ACC season undefeated and Carolina's 21st regular-season championship (including shared titles).
• UNC is outscoring opponents 13-3 so far in the NCAA Tournament's three games and coming off its ninth shutout of the season, 3-0 over Penn State in Friday's semifinal game.
• With two goals and an assist in Friday's game, senior Erin Matson became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Tournament play. She heads into Sunday's game, her 16^th in NCAA play, with 52 points on 22 goals and eight assists.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Erin Matson