The best Tar Heel sports team at the moment speaks loudly and carries big sticks.
Dean Smith once famously noted that UNC was not a basketball school, but rather a women’s soccer school. Smith’s observation came as Anson Dorrance’s team was in the middle of an incredible run of 15 national championships in 17 seasons.
These days, Carolina women’s soccer is still an exceptional program, but the playing field around it has certainly improved. Now, another program and its no-nonsense head coach has risen to juggernaut status. That would be UNC women’s lacrosse and coach Jenny Levy, who is entering her 31st season at the helm in Chapel Hill. Levy and the women’s lacrosse program are as intertwined as coach and team can be: she is quite literally the only coach in program history, having started it from scratch in 1994.
Now, Levy has four national championships, more than 400 total wins and a Hall of Fame induction under her belt. Levy’s most recent two titles capped off undefeated seasons, and her Tar Heels look poised to defend their 2025 championship this spring.
Carolina is 2-0 on the young season and has now won 24 consecutive games. Both of UNC’s wins have come against ranked foes, including a comeback win at No. 13 Syracuse in which the Tar Heels trailed 3-1 after the first quarter.
And just as Dorrance had Mia Hamm powering his dynasty, Levy appears to have found a transcendent star of her own: Chloe Humphrey, who is only in her second active season but already has a trophy case full to bursting. The reigning ACC Tournament MVP, first team All-American, NCAA Tournament MOP and National Player of the Year is off to another strong start in 2026, with two hat tricks in as many games. In fact, a hat trick should probably be viewed as Humphrey’s baseline: she’s scored at least 3 goals in 20 of her 24 career games.
Humphrey arrived in Chapel Hill as a blue-chip recruit and was supposed to debut in 2024, but had to sit out after doctors discovered a stress reaction in her foot. She rebounded from that setback to stake an early claim as one of the best players to ever suit up for Levy’s team.
The 2024 season Humphrey sat out was poor by Levy’s sky-high standards. The Tar Heels went 10-7 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Levy, a ferocious competitor since her playing days at Virginia, took it personally. Her team’s rallying cry the next year was about keeping receipts.
Now, UNC doesn’t have receipts to cash, but a crown to defend. That’s one achievement which has escaped Levy so far: her teams have never gone back-to-back. And you can bet that’s all the fuel the Tar Heels need.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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