By R.L. Bynum

In Erin Matson’s first season as the youngest Division I head coach in any sport, North Carolina is one win away from its 11th NCAA title and the Tar Heels’ second in a row.

The No. 1 Tar Heels advanced with a 2–0 victory over No. 5-ranked Virginia in the NCAA tournament semifinals at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill after the teams split a pair of earlier meetings.

“Our girls battled that entire game – it was a fight,” Matson said. “There’s nothing like playing on our home field in front of our home crowd. They made it, as we expected, an incredible atmosphere – you don’t see this with hockey. So thank you to the fans.”

Matson will attempt to add a national championship as a coach to the four NCAA titles she won in her four-year playing career, which ended by beating Northwestern in last season’s NCAA championship game. The teams will play again in the championship game at 1:30 Sunday (ESPN) after the No. 2-seed Wildcats (21–1) ousted No. 3-seed Duke 2–1 in Friday’s second semifinal.

UNC (17–3) will play in the NCAA championship game for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

UNC took the lead in the seventh minute when senior midfielder Katie Dixon assisted on sophomore forward Ryleigh Heck’s 13th goal.

The Tar Heels made it 2–0 off a second-quarter corner in the 22nd minute on sophomore midfielder Sietske Brüning’s second goal of the season off assists from senior forward Paityn Wirth and senior Romea Riccardo.

UNC fifth-year goaltender Maddie Kahn made two saves to earn her third shutout of the season.

“At the end of the end of the day, they played Carolina field hockey and that’s why we came out with the win,” Matson said.

Virginia (14–7) squandered three corner chances in the first quarter and didn’t get another one until two fourth-quarter corners, and couldn’t convert on either one of those. Virginia pulled its goaltender in the 55th minute but still couldn’t score.

Virginia and Carolina split 3–2 games played in Charlotteville, Va., earlier this season, with the Cavaliers winning the regular-season meeting on Oct. 20 and the Tar Heels winning in the ACC tournament semifinals on Nov. 1.

NOTES — UNC owned advantages of 8–6 on shots and 6–2 in shots on goal. Both teams had five corners. … Friday’s game was UNC’s record 109th in the NCAA tournament, as the Tar Heels are in the tournament for a record 40th time. … Carolina has a record 80 NCAA tournament wins, easily topping Maryland’s total of 69. … This is the third time UNC has been the Final Four host. The Tar Heels lost to Maryland in an overtime championship game in 1987 and beat Michigan in overtime in May 2021. … Carolina is 8–2 at Shelton Stadium this season, with both losses coming in overtime (3–2 against Iowa on Aug. 27 and 2–1 in two overtimes against Liberty on Oct. 8.) … UNC leads the all-time series with Virginia 65–19, and had won 12 in a row before the regular-season defeat. Carolina is 4–1 against Virginia in NCAA tournament play.

No. 1 UNC 2, No. 5 Virginia 0

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