Heels Battle Hawks In NCAA Semifinal

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - North Carolina field hockey will make its record 28th appearance in the final four on Friday afternoon in a matchup with the No. 4 seed Saint Joseph's. The game is scheduled to start at noon ET with coverage coming on ESPN+.

The Tar Heels are the tournaments No. 1 seed for the third year in a row and the sixth time in the past seven years. Shutout ins over Delaware and No. 9 Duke in the first two rounds booked their spot in the final four. No. 2 Northwestern and UMass face off in the other semifinal game at 3:00 p.m. ET, with the winners playing Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Carolina has won back-to-back national championships and is seeking their 12th in program history. UNC and Northwestern have met in the finals each of the past two years.

Heels v. Hawks
• Friday's game is the seventh all time meeting between UNC and Saint Joseph's. Carolina leads the series 5-1.
• Last time they met: Oct. 1, 2023. After trailing early, UNC stormed back with goals from Bruder, Brüning, Heck and senior Paityn Wirth.
• The pair have faced off in NCAA tournament play twice, with Carolina winning both games. Most recently UNC took a 5-2 win in the second round of the 2022 tourney on its way to a national title. The 2017 matchup came in the first round.
• The Hawks got here with a pair of 1-0 home wins over Lafayette and Princeton in the first two rounds.
• UNC sits in first with SJU in third in the nation in six stat categories: winning percentage, goals per game, assists per game, scoring average and scoring margin. Northwestern is in second in each category as well.
• The programs have five common opponents this year (Penn, Duke, Delaware, Virginia and Princeton). They went a combined 11-0 in those games. UNC had a +21 margin while SJU was +10.

Carolina Quick Facts
• The Tar Heels took down Duke 3-0 to punch their ticket to the final four. A pair of goals from ACC OPOTY Ryleigh Heck powered Carolina into their record 28th semifinal.
• Friday's matchup will be the seventh of the year between the Heels and a top-10 team. Carolina has won the previous six by an average margin of 3.00 goals.
• UNC has won it's last five semifinal matchups dating back to 2017 and seven of the last eight. In total the team is 22-5 in semifinal games.
• Carolina started its season in Ann Arbor, taking two highly ranked wins over No. 12 Michigan and No. 6 Iowa. Charly Bruder had three on the weekend to lead the team with Sanne Hak also scoring in both contests.
• Bruder, with 26 goals on the season, now sits in a tie with for the 8th most in a year in program history and needs just one more score to tie her head coach's tallies from her final two campaigns at 27, which would put her in a five way tie for the 4th most all-time.
• UNC won its 27th ACC tournament title as Bruder won tournament MVP honors with five goals in three games. The program extended its streak to eight years in a row.
• Bruder and Heck were the class of the ACC all season. Bruder leads the conference in goals (26, also best in the nation), shots (127), and points (55). Heck leads in assists (15) while sitting in second in goals (15) and points (45).
• The Heels lead the nation in goals per game (4.00), assists per game (3.60), points per game (11.60), scoring average (4.21), scoring margin (3.74), and goals against average (0.47). They are second in penalty corner per game with 9.29.
• Senior goalkeeper Abigail Taylor's 0.44 goals against average is the best in the country.
• Carolina is the only undefeated team left in the country and is attempting to become just the 10th in the sport's history and sixth in program history to run the table start to finish.

UNC in the NCAA Tournament
• Recent history has been all Carolina. The team has claimed five of the last six titles to overtake Old Dominion for the most all-time.
• Much of that recent success can be attributed to the arrival of Erin Matson to Chapel Hill. The "Michael Jordan of field hockey" won four titles in five years as a player before winning once again last season in her first as the head coach.
• Matson also holds the NCAA tournament career records for most points scored with 54 and most goals with 23.
• She took over at the helm for the legendary Karen Shelton, who won 10 times in her 42 years in charge. She holds the records for the most NCAA titles won by a single coach, most tournament appearances (39), games coached (106), and games won (77).
• The Heels are making a record 41st appearance in the NCAA tournament field. Friday's game will be UNC's 113th in tournament play, also a record.
• Carolina has won 83 games in the NCAA tournament, more than any other school. Maryland is second with 69 and Old Dominion is third with 50. UCONN at 47 rounds out the only four teams with more than 40 wins.
• North Carolina is 83-29 all-time in the tournament, holding the record for the best winning percentage (.741).
• UNC has the most championship round appearances with 28.
• UNC is 8-9 in games that make it to overtime.
• The program has been the No. 1 seeded team on 12 different occasions since seeding began in 1997, having done so six more times than the next closest team (Maryland).
• In those 12 tournaments as the top seed, Carolina has come away with eight national championships and holds a 39-4 record.

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Players Mentioned

Charly Bruder

Sanne Hak

Ryleigh Heck

Abigail Taylor

Paityn Wirth