Tag: Field Hockey

Ryleigh Heck captures well-deserved National Player of the Year honor

UNC Field Hockey sophomore Ryleigh Heck, who scored the winning shootout goal in the 2023 National Championship, is also Player of the Year.

If it weren’t for sophomore Ryleigh Heck, there’s a strong chance the UNC Field Hockey team wouldn’t be celebrating its 11th National Championship.

With the Tar Heels and Northwestern Wildcats failing to break a 1-1 tie in overtime, a shootout ensued. Carolina took a one-goal lead in the shootout, only for Northwestern to score two straight and grab that lead right back.

UNC tied the shootout at two on its next attempt, which then set up the visiting Wildcats for a sudden death conversion attempt. Tar Heels goalie Maddie Kahn saved Northwestern’s attempt, which then gave Heck a chance to win it all.

Heck did exactly that, drawing Wildcats goalie Annabelle Skubitz out of net. Heck spun around, put the ball on her stick, then blasted it into the goal and sent Chapel Hill into pandamonium.

As a result of her National Championship performance, which was just a microcosm of her successful Year Two as a collegiate field hockey player, Heck was tabbed the National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s National Player of the Year.

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Heck ended her sophomore season with 13 goals, second-most on the Tar Heels behind freshman Charly Bruder, who started the title game scoring with a 33rd-minute tally. Heck and Bruder were the lone Tar Heels with double-digit goals, as Paityn Wirth was the next closest with seven goals.

With Heck expected to come back next year, barring a transfer, UNC should be a favorite to repeat and capture its 12th Natty.

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Tar Heels play Cavaliers Friday for spot in Field Hockey title game

The UNC and UVA field hockey teams split their two matchups earlier this year. When they play Friday, it’ll be for a spot in the title game.

When it comes to consistent success in collegiate sports, there’s few teams better than the UNC field hockey squad.

The Tar Heels (16-3, 5-1) have 10 NCAA Championships, which is most all-time and one spot ahead of Old Dominion. They’ve won four out of the past five national titles, including last year, when they won all 21 games.

Carolina’s ( head coach is Erin Matson, who at 23 years old in her first season as head coach, is the youngest coach in ALL of Division-I sports. Matson is the ACC’s all-time leader in goals (137) and points (337) – a transition to coaching was natural for her.

Matson and the 2023 UNC fockey squad aren’t done yet. They play ACC rival UVA (14-6, 3-3) on Friday at 12 p.m. ET – this time in the NCAA Tourney Final Four – with home-field advantage almost sure to come at Karen Shelton Stadium.

Carolina downed 9-seed Harvard pretty comfortably on Friday, Nov. 10, defeating the Crimson by a 4-2 mark. UVA did the same on Friday, blanking 4-seed Maryland by a 4-0 score.

The Tar Heels and Cavaliers split their two matchups this season – a 3-2, regular-season Cavs win in Charlottesville on Friday, Oct. 20, then a 3-2 Heels victory in the ACC Tourney Semifinals – also in Charlottesville.

The stakes are a little higher this time, with the winner playing in Chapel Hill on Sunday for the National Championship, at 1:30 p.m. ET.

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Tar Heels squeak by Monarchs in field hockey thriller

The UNC field hockey program, under the guidance of former player and first-year head coach Erin Matson, sits at 4-1 after Sunday’s victory.

The post-Karen Shelton era for UNC field hockey is off to a solid start.

After 42 years leading a program with the most championships all-time, Shelton turned things over to Erin Matson, who helped the Tar Heels win four national championships. Shelton collected 745 wins in her time as UNC head coach, making her shoes extremely difficult to feel.

If there’s anyone that can continue leading the Heels to victories, it’s Matson.

So far, in her first year as head coach, Matson is doing a stellar job.

On Sunday afternoon in Norfolk, Va., UNC raced out to a 2-goal lead and held on for a tightly-contested, 2-1 victory over Old Dominion University.

The host Monarchs are second all-time in championships with nine, dominating the 1980’s and 90’s but not appearing in a single NCAA Tournament since 2013.

Paityn Wirth scored Carolina’s first goal just under four minutes in, deking out ODU goalie Suus Broers and finding the back corner of the net. Charly Bruder extended the Heels’ lead to 2-0 with a one-timer in the fourth quarter, only to be followed by a Monarch goal moments later.

Sitting at 4-1 with its only loss to top-ranked Iowa, the UNC field hockey program is in good hands.

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UNC Field Hockey scores first win

UNC Field Hockey team earns first win of the season, beating Michigan 3-1 in Erin Matson’s coaching debut.

The North Carolina field hockey team picked up right where they left off, notching its first win of the season and the first of [autotag]Erin Matson’s [/autotag]coaching career.

UNC is posed for another successful season, claiming the No.1 spot in the coaches poll and picked to win the ACC. Friday night, they confirmed the high belief in the Tar Heel’s abilities to claim a seventh straight ACC title after declawing the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines with a 3-2 win in Chapel Hill.

The game brought a great turnout as fans poured into Kenan Memorial Stadium, erupting Tar Heel chants in waves.

UNC got off to a slow start, with Michigan taking the 1-0 lead. Undoubtedly, that would be enough to ignite the spark, as the Tar Heels would score three unanswered points to go on and win the game.

The biggest key to this victory for UNC was their second-quarter pressure. Michigan outshot UNC in the first 2-0. Then, the UNC switch was flipped by outshooting Michigan 12-4 in the last three quarters.

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Tar Heels Field Hockey favored to win ACC

The North Carolina Field Hockey team is favored to win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

The North Carolina Field Hockey team is looking to dominate the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) again, and they are being picked to do so.

UNC will be looking to win their seventh straight ACC championship on the heels of a 6-0 conference record last season. The honor comes from the 2023 ACC coaches poll, with UNC taking the top spot, followed by Virginia (No. 2), Syracuse (No.3), Louisville (No.4), Boston College (No. 5), Wake Forest (No.6), and Duke (No.7).

The Tar Heels are scheduled to play their first regular game of the season, Friday, against Michigan for an ACC/BigTen challenge.

What makes this upcoming season so unique for the Field Hockey team is that it will be the first time the program will not be coached by Karen Shelton in 42 years. Instead, they will be led by Erin Matson, who many consider the greatest field hockey player in the program’s history.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Gators News: July 9, 2020

The number of positive coronavirus cases continues to increase steeply leaving the nation and sports wondering how to move forward.

As we head into the downslope of another week, the number of positive coronavirus cases continues to increase steeply, leaving the nation — much less the sports world — wondering how to take its next steps forward.

Yesterday, the Ivy League announced that it will cancel all fall sports and will not resume athletics no sooner than January 1, 2021. The decision affects football as well as men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and women’s field hockey and volleyball. Stanford also announced that it is cutting 11 of its 36 varsity sports programs, including field hockey, wrestling and men’s volleyball.

Additionally, Ohio State decided to hit the pause switch on all voluntary workouts after an unconfirmed number of athletes tested positive for COVID-19; the exact number was not released in order to protect the identity of those infected.

Here is the rest of our stories from yesterday.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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NCAA grants spring season athletes an extra year of eligibility

The NCAA announced student-athletes for spring sports will be granted a waiver for an additional season of eligibility after coronavirus.

Due to the unprecedented affects and uncertainties of the coronavirus, the NCAA shut down the balance of winter sports and cancelled all spring sports this week.

Now the NCAA has announced that student-athletes for spring sports will be granted a waiver for an additional season of eligibility.

“Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Divisiion I student-athletes who participated in spring sports,” the NCAA released in a statement. “Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time. Additional issues with the NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks.”

The coronavirus is an unprecedented event and to the credit of the NCAA, took immediate and unprecedented measures. Granting the relief to student-athletes does create several logisitcal issues and costs could be substantial. With every sport having scholarship limits, the NCAA will have to elevate scholarship limits for the next four years.

And who and how will that extra year of scholarships be paid by? Most athletic programs are underwater financially and don’t have the means to fund additional scholarships. Will the NCAA step in and help fund those programs?

As for winter sports, particularly men’s and women’s basketball, the committee “will also discuss issues related to seasons of competition” for those athletes who were not able to play in conference and NCAA championships.

With the exception of women’s tennis, spring sport athletes are overwhelmingly on equivalency scholarships and thus additional seasons of playing eligibility would come with an additional cost not only to their athletic departments or the NCAA, should it finance the cost, but to the athletes and their families.