The UNC ice hockey club team is headed outdoors once again in the upcoming season.

The program released its 2024-25 schedule in the last week, revealing the Tar Heels’ upcoming opponents — and several unique neutral site matches.

The headlining game is a matchup with Virginia Tech on January 4, which is slated to be played in downtown Charlotte at Truist Field. The ballpark, which is the home of minor league baseball’s Charlotte Knights, has set up an NHL regulation-sized ice skating rink in years past as part of a winter holiday festival during the offseason. It marks a return to outdoor play after Carolina faced off against the N.C. State Icepack in Carter-Finley Stadium in 2023 after a rink was built for the NHL’s Stadium Series game hosted by the Carolina Hurricanes.

The matchup at Truist Field will be the first of a three-game stretch where the Tar Heel and Hokie programs will play each other that week, with the other two games will be played at the teams’ home rinks.

A overhead shot of Truist Field, its ice skating rink, and the Charlotte skyline during the 2023 Light the Knights Festival. UNC club ice hockey announced it plans to play an outdoor game at Truist Field in January 2025. (Photo via the Charlotte Knights/Minor League Baseball.)

Additionally, the UNC club hockey team plans to play at a military base. On October 20, the Tar Heels will meet the New Hampshire Wildcats at Fort Liberty — a U.S. Army compound formerly known as Fort Bragg — near Fayetteville, N.C. Other regular season neutral site games include a showcase against UNC’s fellow Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League peers and the Governor’s Cup game against N.C. State in Raleigh’s PNC Arena.

Carolina’s season-opening matchup will be against Wake Forest at the Orange County Sportsplex in Hillsborough, where the Tar Heels play their home games, on August 31. Other highlights from the schedule include a pair of home games against South Carolina, hosting Michigan State, and games against both Alabama and Louisville.

The 2024-25 season marks the final one before a stretch of major change for the UNC club team. The following season, the program will elevate to Division 1 and join the American Collegiate Hockey Association — creating a new division of the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League alongside N.C. State, Alabama and Louisville. The move is a critical step toward the UNC team eventually reaching NCAA Division I play, which the program’s boosters are hoping to help achieve through a new home arena planned for construction in Chapel Hill. The hockey team aims to build a 2,000-seat stadium for its games in the Carraway Village development off Eubanks Road, with the goal of having it complete within the next few years.

Tickets to home games for the UNC ice hockey club team will be available on a game-by-game basis on the team’s website later this year. The full schedule for the 2024-25 season can also be found there.

 

Featured photo via UNC Hockey/Trevor Holman.

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