Led by a career-high 10 points from sophomore attacker Jamie Ortega on Saturday, the third-ranked UNC women’s lacrosse team rolled to an easy 21-11 victory over the No. 5 Northwestern Wildcats.

The game was the Tar Heels’ first in their brand new on-campus soccer and lacrosse stadium.

Ortega ended the day with a whopping seven goals and three assists, with those 10 points tying a school record set by Kellie Thompson back in 2002.

In addition to Ortega’s brilliance, UNC also received five goals from Taylor McDaniels and a pair of hat tricks from Katie Hoeg and Olivia Ferrucci.

The outcome was never really in doubt on Saturday, as the Tar Heels built a 14-3 halftime lead and refused to let their foot off the gas in the second half.

UNC racked up its 21 goals on just 29 shots, while Northwestern shot the ball 25 times but struggled to find the back of the net at the same rate.

As a result, head coach Jenny Levy’s Tar Heels improved to 4-1 this season. Northwestern dropped to 3-2 with the loss.

“Overall, it was a really big team effort,” Levy said afterwards. “I thought our offense did a really good job of communicating and playing the game that was in front of them instead of waiting for something pre-established we felt was supposed to happen. That’s something we’ve been working on.  I thought our defense also did great.  Northwestern had been averaging 18 goals a game, and we held them to three in the first half.”

Up Next:

Next for the Tar Heels is the ACC opener against Virginia on Saturday, March 9. That game will be in Chapel Hill and is scheduled to start at noon.

 

Photo via UNC Athletics

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