The Atlantic Coast Conference college field hockey tournament concluded over the weekend with a familiar champion: the University of North Carolina.
Chapel Hill captured its 27th trophy and eighth consecutive conference title.
The conference tournament featured the Tar Heels, Syracuse, Duke and Boston College. North Carolina defeated Boston College on Friday.
North Carolina won 4-1, with Charly Bruder, Cianna Riccardo, Sanne Hak and Ryleigh Heck contributing offensively. Boston College’s Klara Mueffelmann scored for the Eagles.
The North Carolina field hockey program is the top overall seed in the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship for the third year in a row and the sixth time in the past seven years, according to UNC Athletics.
“The Tar Heels, who earned an auto bid by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, open play on Friday in Karen Shelton Stadium at 11:00 a.m. ET against the winner of Wednesday’s opening round matchup between Delaware & Fairfield. It is the program’s 12th time in the No. 1 spot since seeding began in 1997, six more times than the next closest program.”
Full NCAA Division I brackets can be found here.
How they got there:
No. 1 North Carolina rolled past No. 8 California 5-0 in the quarterfinals. The goal scorers for the Tar Heels included two goals from Bruder, Hak, Avery Donahue and Hope Haynes.
No. 5 Syracuse took on No. 4 Virginia, where they came out with the 1-0 win. Syracuse goalkeeper Louise Pert made it through the game perfect while Lana Hamilton scored the goal for the Orange.
These wins led North Carolina to take on Syracuse in the semifinals. The Tar Heels took the 3-1 win. Bruder had another phenomenal performance scoring the first two goals of the game. Pleun Lammers then made it 3-0 until Sarah Smalley got a goal to put Syracuse on the board.
No. 2 Duke opened play against No. 7 Wake Forest where they took the 4-1 victory. The first half stayed at zero but then Duke took off as Macy Szukics scored a penalty stroke to break the ice. Shortly after, Alaina McVeigh got back-to-back goals making it 3-0. Brooke McCusker put Wake Forest on the board but it wasn’t enough as Logan Clouser finished off scoring for Duke.
No. 3 Boston College took on No. 6 Stanford, where they won 3-2. Martina Giacchino opened the scoring for the Eagles as well as Madelief Grandjean. Stanford tied up the game with goals by Star Horlock and Allison Kuzyk. Yani Zhong scored the game-winning goal to send the Eagles to the semifinals.
Duke and Boston College faced off in the semifinals to see who was going to face North Carolina. Duke scored first as Kira Curland found the back of the cage. Grandjean tied it up with 20 minutes remaining and sent the game into a shootout. The Eagles won the shootout to take the 2-1 win.
Kassie Vasellas is a Female Athlete News student-intern at Penn State University.
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