The UNC field hockey team won its 10th NCAA title and fourth in the last five years Sunday, defeating Northwestern 2-1 in the national championship. The win completes a perfect 21-0 season for the Tar Heels and also avenges the team’s most recent loss, which came against the Wildcats in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Playing in her final collegiate game, Erin Matson scored the game-winning goal with 1:18 remaining, just 36 seconds after Northwestern had tied it up. It was a redemptive moment for Matson, who’d been kept off the scoresheet earlier with her first missed penalty stroke of the season.

ACC Freshman of the Year Ryleigh Heck had scored UNC’s first goal on a penalty corner in the second quarter. She and Matson combined for 46 of Carolina’s 82 goals this season.

The Tar Heels played suffocating defense all game, not allowing Northwestern a single shot on goal until the Wildcats tied it with fewer than two minutes remaining. Overall, Northwestern had just two shots, compared to 15 (nine on goal) for Carolina. The Wildcats pulled their goalie after Matson’s goal but could not get a shot off with an extra attacker.

Matson ends her Carolina career as one of the most decorated student-athletes in Tar Heel history: she is the only player in program history to win four national championships, is the only player in ACC history to win conference Player of the Year five times and is the ACC’s all-time leader in points. In her career, the Tar Heels finished with a 99-8 overall record, with seven of those losses coming last season. Carolina also completed three perfect seasons with Matson on the team: matching 23-0 records in 2018 and 2019 and this year’s 21-0 mark.

Head coach Karen Shelton has been leading the program for all 10 of its national championships, which breaks a tie with Old Dominion for most among Division 1 programs. She is just the second coach in UNC history to win 10 or more NCAA titles, joining Anson Dorrance of the women’s soccer team.

“I’m proud of our group for defending as well as we did as a complete unit,” Shelton said after the game. “I thought we defended the entire game, every player. We had a plan and while we turned the ball over a little bit and they had opportunities, I thought we did what we wanted to do.

“I’m just so proud of the entire team,” the head coach added about the program’s 2022 season. “Every player contributed, even the ones that didn’t step on the field today because all season long they made us better at practice and they worked hard every day. It was just an outstanding season for all of us.”

 

Featured image via UNC Field Hockey on Twitter

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