As the regular season is wrapping up for college lacrosse, five UNC players made the initial cut for a prestigious end-of-year award.

The foundation behind the Tewaaraton Award, which goes to the best individual men’s and women’s lacrosse players in the U.S. each season, announced its lists of 25 nominees for the honor. After strong regular season campaigns, four UNC women’s players and one men’s player made their respective lists.

From the No. 1 overall Carolina women’s team, midfielder Ally Mastroianni, goalie Taylor Moreno, attacker Jamie Ortega and defender Emma Trenchard all earned spots. The quartet were all featured on the nominees list in 2021 as well, when the Tar Heels went 20-1 and lost in the national semifinals. Moreno and Ortega each made the cut for finalists last year before the honor was eventually awarded to Boston College’s Charlotte North, who made the nominee list once again.

No other college team had four players make the women’s Tewaaraton Award list this season.

While the UNC men’s team has not had an undefeated campaign like the women’s program, star attacker Chris Gray still earned a nod on the men’s Tewaaraton Award list. The graduate student not only leads the Tar Heels, but leads the ACC in goals and points per game. Gray is also just nine points away from breaking the all-time career point record for Division I lacrosse.

A list of five finalists for each men’s and women’s lacrosse will be named in May, with the Tewaaraton Award winner being announced on June 2.

Before that, however, the Tar Heels programs will compete in their respective conference and NCAA tournaments. The UNC women’s lacrosse team will begin ACC play as the top seed on Friday, April 29, while the men’s team will wrap up regular season play against Duke on Sunday, May 1.

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