A career-high seven goals from freshman attacker Jamie Ortega on Saturday at Kenan Stadium guided the fifth-ranked UNC women’s lacrosse team to a commanding 20-10 victory over the No. 22 Duke Blue Devils.

It was the regular season finale for both teams, and represented the eighth consecutive victory for the Tar Heels (12-3, 6-1 ACC) in the sport against their most hated rivals.

In addition to Ortega’s standout performance, Marie McCool contributed four goals and one assist while Katie Hoeg added a goal and four assists to each finish with five points.

Duke (7-8, 2-5 ACC) opened scoring in the game with a goal from Olivia Jenner in the first 10 seconds, and seemed like it could potentially pull an upset in the early minutes.

After building a 4-2 lead, however, the Blue Devils fell victim to an offensive explosion from the Tar Heels.

Trailing 5-4, UNC rattled off the next 10 consecutive goals to take a 14-5 lead into the halftime break. From there, the rest of the game was just a formality as the Tar Heels put the finishing touches on yet another impressive rivalry win.

Up Next:

UNC will play again on Thursday in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals in Durham. The Tar Heels are the No. 2 seed and will take on either Syracuse or Louisville at 5 p.m.

 

 

 

Photo via Jeffrey A. Camarati (UNC Athletics)