The two-time defending national champion UNC field hockey team was picked second in the ACC’s 2024 preseason poll — by the narrowest of margins. Though the Tar Heels and Virginia each received four first-place votes, the Cavaliers topped the poll with 76 points to Carolina’s 75.

Duke, Louisville and Syracuse round out the league’s top five, with the Blue Devils receiving one first-place vote and the Cardinals and Orange tying for fourth place. Boston College sits in sixth and Wake Forest in seventh, while ACC newcomers Cal and Stanford tied for eighth place.

In addition, three Tar Heels were named to the preseason All-ACC team: Katie Dixon, Sietske Brüning and Ryleigh Heck. Heck, a rising junior and the reigning National Player of the Year, scored the winning penalty stroke for Carolina in its national title win against Northwestern last season. Dixon is entering her final season with the Tar Heels and has missed just one game through four years. She served as a team captain in 2023 and was named to the NCAA’s All-Tournament team. Brüning has started all 42 games since arriving in Chapel Hill ahead of the 2022 season and was named a third team All-American in 2023.

Carolina is scheduled to play two scrimmages before the start of the regular season: against Wake Forest in Chapel Hill on August 22 at 5 p.m. and at Duke on August 24 at 11 a.m. UNC begins the regular season in Ann Arbor, MI for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge against Michigan on August 30 at 6 p.m.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati

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