The top-ranked UNC women’s lacrosse team kicked off its run through the NCAA Tournament on the right note Sunday afternoon at Dorrance Field, pulling out a 14-9 first-round victory over James Madison.

While the Tar Heels (19-0) have steamrolled through opponents for much of the season–including a 15-5 win over James Madison on Mar. 21–Sunday’s win didn’t come quite as easy.

James Madison led 4-2 early in the game until UNC closed the first half on a 7-2 run to lead 9-6 at halftime. The Dukes then came out in the second half and closed the gap to just two goals–with the Tar Heels ahead 10-8.

Just over 15 minutes remained on the game clock, when UNC suddenly reeled off four consecutive goals in a period of three minutes to seal up the victory.

Jamie Ortega led the Tar Heels with four goals, while Katie Hoeg added two goals and four assists. In addition, Tayler Warehime and Caitlyn Wurzburger chipped in three and two goals, respectively, for UNC.

“JMU is a really tough opponent,” UNC head coach Jenny Levy said afterwards. “They won the CAAA, which has four teams in the NCAA Tournament, and their reward was to play us. And our reward for winning the ACC was playing them. I think that’s a really hard second-round matchup. I feel bad for them, because someone had to lose today, and two really good teams played.”

Up Next:

The Tar Heels move on to face Stony Brook in the quarterfinals on Saturday, May 22. The teams previously met in the regular season opener back on Feb. 14, with UNC coming out on top 14-7.

 

 

Photo via Dakota Moyer

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