North Carolina Dominates Maryland, One Win From National Championship Repeat

With ease, North Carolina cleared the penultimate hurdle in its chase for back-to-back national championships Friday afternoon inside Martin Stadium.

Behind a combined 10 goals from sophomore attackers Chloe Humphrey and Addison Pattillo, the second-seeded Tar Heels blew by third-seeded Maryland 16-6 to secure their spot in Sunday’s national championship game.

After a first-quarter hat trick from Humphrey pushed the Tar Heels out to a 3-2 advantage, the defending national champions outscored the Terrapins 13-4 across the final 45 minutes to run away with Friday’s contest.

“It usually takes a couple plays to get into the fabric of the game, get rhythm on offense, get rhythm on defense, see what their game plan is offensively and defensively, and then start to problem-solve,” head coach Jenny Levy said. 

“I like how we adjusted to the game. It got a little tight in the beginning of the second quarter, and then we started to really get into rhythm all over the field. So it was great.”

Friday marked the Tar Heels’ second consecutive statement Final Four victory, as UNC held Florida scoreless for the final three quarters of last year’s semifinal en route to a 20-4 victory.

“I would rather be the hammer, not the nail,” Levy said. “That’s kind of my mentality in life, so I think I probably coach that way, too. But it’s disciplined, calculated and intentional. There’s times where we’re going, and there’s times where we are a little bit more conservative, but I prefer to play that way.”

In a matchup between two of the sport’s most storied programs, it was the Tar Heels who overwhelmed the 14-time national champions.

Maryland entered Friday averaging 12.95 goals per game — 27th nationally — while generating 30.57 shots per contest, good for 20th in the country. UNC’s fifth-ranked scoring defense, which allowed just 7.63 goals per game entering the semifinal, limited the Terrapins to six goals on 23 shots.

“Our game plan today was just to go in and play us,” graduate defender Sam Forrest said. “We felt as if they had not faced a defense as high pressure and as aggressive as ours. So we wanted to really just go out there and show them what we had, and we’ve been honing that in all season.”

On the other side of the field, the Tar Heels were just as dominant offensively. Maryland goalie JJ Suriano entered Friday allowing 9.75 goals per game while posting the nation’s third-best save percentage (.517), before facing the country’s highest-scoring offense. In a testament to UNC’s youth movement, 15 of the Tar Heels’ 16 goals came from freshmen or sophomores.

“Although we show up on the stat sheet, I give so much credit to the leaders,” Humphrey said. “Ever since we set foot on campus, these are the most welcoming girls I’ve ever been a part of. They are so supportive.”

Friday’s win marked UNC’s 41st victory in its last 42 games, dating back to last year’s perfect 22-0 national championship campaign. Sunday, the Tar Heels will pursue the program’s fifth national title while attempting to become the first repeat champion since Maryland accomplished the feat in 2014 and 2015.

“We are still on a journey of improvement, and we get one more day to tweak it a little bit more and get ready for, I’m sure, a tough opponent on Sunday,” Levy said.

In a rematch of last season’s title game, the Tar Heels will take on top-seeded Northwestern in Sunday’s championship, airing at noon on ESPN.