Field Hockey Blanks Virginia, 2-0, To Advance To NCAA Final

Friday, November 17

Chapel Hill

Noon

North Carolina

(17-3 (5-1ACC))

Virginia (NCAA Semifinal)

(14-7 (3-3ACC))

Virginia

North Carolina

Ryleigh Heck celebrates her first-half goal

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

November 17, 2023 | Field Hockey

Box Score Final Stats (.pdf)NCAA Championship Central Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina field hockey team earned a shutout win on its home turf Friday to claim a spot in the NCAA Championship game. The Tar Heels scored twice in the first half and then held on for a 2-0 win over No. 4 Virginia in a semifinals matchup.

North Carolina will face No. 2 Northwestern, a 2-1 winner over Duke in the second semifinal, on Sunday in the championship game, which is set for 1:30 p.m. at Karen Shelton Stadium.

"Our girls battled that entire game – it was a fight," UNC coach Erin Matson said. "There's nothing like playing on our home field in front of our home crowd. They made it, as we expected, an incredible atmosphere – you don't see this with hockey. So thank you to the fans."

The top-ranked Tar Heels are now 17-3 and will play for the program's 11^th national championship, the fifth in the past six years. UNC is the defending champion after winning the 2022 title in Storrs, Conn., beating Northwestern. Carolina also won in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Northwestern won it in 2021.

Sophomore Ryleigh Heck put UNC up for good in the seventh minute of play when she got a pass from senior Paityn Wirth and sent a shot past Virginia keeper Tyler Kennedy for the score.

"The goal started from defense to attack," Heck said. "It was a team goal and I just happened to be able to finish it. It was a good feeling to have it in the back of the net."

The Tar Heels added another in the second quarter on a penalty corner, one of just five they drew in the game. Sophomore Sietske Brüning had the shot, with assists to Wirth and Romea Riccardo.

Virginia didn't manage a shot or a corner in the third quarter and had just two after halftime. The Cavaliers pulled Kennedy in favor of an extra field player with just under six minutes go but they weren't able to capitalize.

This UNC-Virginia matchup was the third in the past month, with the teams splitting the first two meetings, both winning by 3-2 scores. The shutout was the first in the UNC-UVA series since a 1-0 Tar Heel win in the 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship.

It was the fifth shutout of the season for the Tar Heels. Graduate student Maddie Kahn made two first-quarter saves on the Cavaliers' only two shots on goal for the day.

"At the end of the end of the day, they played Carolina field hockey and that's why we came out with the win," Matson said.

Notes:
• Wirth's two assists bring her total to six over the past two games. She now has a team-high nine on the season.
• The Tar Heels finished with eight shots, their second-lowest total of the season.
• UNC and Northwestern are facing off in the championship game for the second year in a row. The last time the same schools met in consecutive years was 2009, 2010 and 2011, when Carolina and Maryland faced off.
• It's North Carolina's 22^nd appearance in the championship game. The Tar Heels have won 10 of their previous 21 championship games.

No. 1 UNC 2, No. 4 Virginia 0
Scoring: UNC – Ryleigh Heck (Paityn Wirth), 6:49; UNC – Sietske Brüning (Wirth, Romea Riccardo)
Shots: UNC 8 (1/3/1/3), UVA 6 (3/1/0/2)
Penalty corners: UNC 5 (0/2/1/2), UVA 5 (3/0/0/2)
Goalkeeper saves: UNC 2 (Maddie Kahn, 2 saves, 0 goals allowed, 60:00), UVA 4 (Tyler Kennedy, 54:14, 4 saves, 2 goals allowed; Team, 5:46)
Records: UNC 17-3, UVA 4-7