Senior Day & Regular Season Finale Await Field Hockey

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Carolina field hockey is prepared to host its regular season finale on Friday night against rival Duke.

It will be the 99th meeting between the two historic foes, with UNC holding an 86-12 record overall. Friday's ACC contests will also determine the conference's regular season championship and seeding for next week's tournament held in Louisville, Ky. where Carolina will go for its ninth-straight ACC Championship.

The Tar Heels are 8-2-1 all-time on Halloween, last playing on the holiday in 2010.

SCHEDULE
vs. #8 Duke | Friday, Oct. 31, 6 PM
Chapel Hill | Karen Shelton Stadium
Watch: ACCNX

NUMBERS TO KNOW
0 - Erin Matson has never lost to Duke, as a player or a coach, with a combined 12-0 record.
1 - Last week, UNC took over the top spot in the NFHCA DI National Coaches Poll. It is the 32nd season in program history they've been ranked No. 1 at some point.
3 - UNC is the only school with three players in the top-20 of points per game with Ryleigh Heck (8th), Charly Bruder (11th), and Dani Mendez (20th) all checking in.
6 - Carolina has 6 wins over top-15 opponents this year, the most in the country.
62 - Friday's hat trick vaulted Ryleigh Heck into the seventh spot for most career goals in program history with 62.

WHAT'S ON THE LINE
➤ Friday's games with No. 8 Duke at No. 1 UNC and No. 6 Wake Forest at No. 4 Virginia will determine the 2025 ACC Regular Season Champion as well as the upcoming conference tournament seeding.
➤ Carolina will either be the No. 1 or No. 2 with a win.
➤ In order for the Tar Heels to earn their fifth straight top seed and a share of the regular season honors, Virginia will need to beat Wake Forest in a game that begins one hour prior to UNC's.
➤ A three-way tie at the top between UVA, Wake, and UNC would be determined by goal difference (with a max of a three goal advantage counted per game).
➤ Currently, under the +3 max per game cap, UNC holds a +11 goal difference to Wake's +12. Therefore with a win and a loss by the Demon Deacons, Carolina would be your No. 1 seed.

SCOUTING REPORT
➤ Friday's game will be the 99th all-time meeting between the two programs.
➤ Last time they met: These rivals last squared off in the second round of the 2024 NCAA tournament in Chapel Hill, where Carolina took a 3-0 win to advance to their nation's best 28th final four. A pair of goals from Ryleigh Heck with a crescendo added by graduating senior Kennedy Cliggett in her class' final game in Karen Shelton Stadium.
➤ Carolina has 12 in a row against the Blue Devils, last faltering in 2017. UNC holds wins in 19 of the last 21 matchups in the series.
➤ As a player and a coach, Matson has never lost to Duke with a combined 12-0 record and a +27 goal differential (she's 13-0 if you count when she threw out the first pitch before UNC Baseball beat Duke 4-3).
➤ Tar Heels Hope Haynes and Merritt Skubisz were high school teammates of Duke forward Kyle Massey.

SQUASHED THE SPIDERS
➤ The Tar Heels rode a dominant first half to a comfortable 6-1 win over Richmond on Friday night.
➤ The nation's No. 2 scoring offense scored five times in the first 25 minutes to take firm control of the contest and never looked back.
➤ Dani Mendez first broke the game open with a pair of goals within a minute of each other, the tallies along with a later assist to Charly Bruder put her over 30 points on the season alongside Bruder and Ryleigh Heck.
➤ Heck added a hat trick, her second of the season, to help give the Heels four or more goals in a game for the ninth time in 2025.

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Players Mentioned

Charly Bruder

Kennedy Cliggett

Hope Haynes

Ryleigh Heck

Dani Mendez

Merritt Skubisz

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