By R.L. Bynum

From the last season’s final September poll until Erin Matson led North Carolina to the field hockey national championship, the Tar Heels were No. 1 in the NFHCA National Coaches Poll.

Matson will begin her head coaching career with her team back in the same spot as UNC tops the preseason poll, released on Tuesday.

Carolina garnered 955 poll points and 29 first-place votes, followed by Northwestern with 914 and 13. Carolina was No. 2 in the first four polls last season, but proved any doubters wrong by going 21–0 and beating Northwestern 2–1 in the national championship game.

Matson’s first two games as head coach won’t be easy, and the entire regular season schedule is challenging.

The No. 1 Tar Heels open at 8:30 Friday night at Karen Shelton Stadium against No. 4 Michigan (ACC Network) in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, then take on No. 7 Iowa at 1 p.m. Sunday in the final game of the Challenge.

UNC beat both teams last season in the Challenge when it was played in Winston-Salem, topping Michigan 5–1 and Iowa 3–2 in overtime.

The Tar Heels face five other top-10 teams this season, with 12 ranked teams on their schedule.

All seven ACC teams are in the poll: No. 6 Virginia, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 9 Louisville, No. 12 Wake Forest, No. 17 Boston College and No. 20 Duke.

Top 20 poll

Rank	Team	Poll points (1st-place votes
1	North Carolina	955 (29)
2	Northwestern	914 (13)
3	Maryland	871 (6)
4	Michigan	751 (1)
5	Penn State	719 (1)
6	Virginia	676 (1)
7	Iowa	671 (0)
8	Syracuse	589 (0)
9	Louisville	520 (0)
10	Princeton	485 (0)
11	Saint Joseph’s	432 (0)
12	Wake Forest	431 (0)
13	Harvard	398 (0)
14	Liberty	361 (0)
15	Connecticut	309 (0)
16	Rutgers	301 (0)
17	Boston College	285 (0)
18	Old Dominion	193 (0)
19	Albany	188 (0)
20	Duke	103 (0)

UNC schedule

Date	Month/day	Time/ score	Opponent/event (current ranking)	Location	Record/ TV
	August		ACC/Big Ten Challenge
25	Friday	W, 3–2	No. 16 Michigan	Home	1–0
27	Sunday	L, 3–2 (OT)	No. 8 Iowa	Home	1–1
	September		ACC/Ivy Challenge
1	Friday	W, 4–0	Penn	Philadelphia	2–1
3	Sunday	W, 2–1 (OT)	Princeton	Philadelphia	3–1
			——————————
10	Sunday	W, 2–1	No. 17 Old Dominion	Norfolk, Va.	4–1
15	Friday	W, 2–0	No. 10 Louisville	Home	5–1, 1–0 ACC
22	Friday	W, 3–0	Wake Forest	Winston-Salem	6–1, 2–0 ACC
24	Sunday	W, 6–1	Appalachian State	Home	7–1
	October
1	Sunday	W, 4–1	No. 13 Saint Joseph’s	Philadelphia	8–1
6	Friday	W, 3–1	No. 14 Boston College	Home	9–1, 3–0 ACC
8	Sunday	L, 2–1 (OT)	No. 7 Liberty	Home	9–2
13	Friday	W, 4–1	No. 11 Syracuse	Syracuse	10–2, 4–1 ACC
15	Sunday	W, 4–3	No. 18 Albany	Albany, N.Y.	11–2
20	Friday	L, 3–2	No. 5 Virginia	Charlottesville	11–3, 4–1 ACC
27	Friday	W, 2–1	No. 3 Duke	Home	12–3, 5–1 ACC
	November		ACC tournament
1	Wednesday	W, 3–2	Semifinals: No. 4 Virginia	Charlottesville	13–3
4	Friday	W, 2–0	Final: No. 3 Duke	Charlottesville	14–3
			NCAA tournament Link to bracket
10	Friday	W, 6–1	First round: William & Mary	Chapel Hill	15–3
12	Sunday	W, 4–2	Second round: No. 9 Harvard	Chapel Hill	16–3
17	Friday	W, 2–0	National semifinal: No. 5 Virginia	Chapel Hill	17–3
19	Sunday	W, 2–1, 2 OTs (UNC wins shootout 3–2)	Championship: No. 2 Northwestern	Chapel Hill	18–3