Chansky's Notebook: Ortega the Great

Six in a row for the UNC women’s lacrosse team.

Since Congress passed Title IX in 1972, colleges have done more than balance their athletic teams with the gender ratio on campuses across the country. Most have taken women’s sports very seriously, and Carolina is at the top of that list.

The national juggernauts over the last two decades have been field hockey and lacrosse, joining women’s soccer under the banner of dynasty. And Jenny Levy’s team added to its legend Saturday with its sixth straight ACC women’s lacrosse championship.

Led by All-Everything super senior Jamie Ortega, the Tar Heels stormed back from a halftime deficit to blow out Boston College and post the 16-9 victory on (Anson) Dorrance Field, named for the women’s soccer coach with the longest college dynasty in any sport.

Great athletes have been gracing the UNC campus for the last century, and Ortega has joined field hockey phenom Erin Matson as the two best-known faces among women Tar Heels today. Ortega had nine points (4 goals and 5 assists) to help top-ranked and unbeaten (18-0) Carolina avenge a loss to BC in last year’s Final Four.

In the process of winning her second tournament MVP, Ortega used her fifth (COVID) season to pass the career ACC points mark of Jen Adams, long considered the best conference lacrosse player while starring at Maryland, which has the most ACC titles at 11.

Ortega kept the Heels close in the first half and then led the second half eruption, capped by her breakaway goal in the closing minutes that was the cherry on top of Levy’s seventh ACC championship. She is UNC’s only women’s lacrosse coach in the 27 years of the sport’s existence.

When Title IX was passed, only 42 percent of college athletes were women. At Carolina, that percentage has risen to roughly parallel the 60 percent majority of women on campus today.

To demonstrate the broad-based program UNC has had for years, lacrosse and field hockey are not close to the most popular collegiate women’s sports in America behind basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country and softball.

That means they have time for even more growth as Ortega and her talented teammates now chase Levy’s third NCAA championship.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications

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Chansky’s Notebook: Ortega the Great

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