It’s championship weekend in NCAA lacrosse, and the UNC women are two wins away from claiming back-to-back national titles for the first time ever.
The second-seeded Tar Heels will face third-seeded Maryland in the semifinals on Friday. It will be the 42nd matchup all-time between Carolina and Maryland, which puts the Terps behind only Virginia (50) and Duke (47) for UNC’s most common opponent. The Tar Heels and Terps last played each other in 2020 and have met in the NCAA tournament six times, including
the 2013, 2015, and 2016 national championship games.
This year’s matchup could be a barn burner, as the Tar Heels average just under 18 goals per game and the Terps average just under 13. UNC sophomore Chloe Humphrey leads the team (and Division I) with 102 goals, followed by classmate Addison Patillo with 55. No other Tar Heel has more than 33. For Maryland, the scoring is a bit more evenly distributed: junior Lauren LaPointe leads the team with 64 goals, followed by senior Kori Edmondson with 48 and grad students Keeley Block and Kristen Shanahan with 41 and 40.
Defensively, Carolina causes an average of 9.8 turnovers per game, while Maryland causes 6.5–the fifth-fewest in Division I. Humphrey and classmate Kate Levy lead the Tar Heels with 21 caused turnovers each; senior Neve O’Ferrall and grad student Maddy Sterling lead the Terps with 16 each. The teams have taken different approaches to goalkeeping, with sophomores Betty Nelson (7.66 goals against average, .406 save percentage) and Lexi Zenk (8.17 GAA, .474 SV%) splitting halves for Carolina and junior JJ Suriano (9.75 GAA, .517 SV%) typically playing the entire game for Maryland.
Carolina and Maryland have four losses between them, three of which were to #1 seed Northwestern. The Wildcats handed the Tar Heels their only loss of the season on March 25, winning 17-16 in overtime in Chapel Hill. The Terps took an 11-10 loss to Northwestern at home on April 9 and a 15-4 loss at Michigan a week later before earning a rematch with Northwestern in the Big Ten championship game on April 26. They lost 8-7 in overtime after erasing a four-goal deficit in the fourth quarter.
To reach the Final Four, UNC blew out unseeded Clemson 17-6 in the second round and beat unseeded Stanford 14-11 in the quarterfinals. Maryland beat unseeded Rutgers 11-8 in the first round and fended off an upset bid from #6 seed Navy in the quarterfinals, closing the game with five unanswered goals after going down 10-9 early in the fourth quarter. It’s the Terps’ first Final Four appearance since 2022.
Both of Friday’s Final Four games will be broadcast on ESPNU, with Carolina vs Maryland starting at 3:00 PM ET and Northwestern vs #4 seed Johns Hopkins starting at 5:30 PM ET. Northwestern’s Martin Stadium is the host site for this year’s Final Four.
