By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina is back atop the women’s college lacrosse world, thanks to another big day from Chloe Humphey.

The No. 1 Tar Heels finished off their second undefeated national championship season in four seasons and fourth NCAA title with a 12–8 victory Sunday over No. 3 Northwestern at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

UNC (22–0), which scored three third-period goals in 46 seconds to pull away from the Wildcats (19–3), got four goals from Chloe Humphrey to extend her single-season UNC record and NCAA freshman scoring record to 90.

Abby LaCoscio gave Northwestern an early 1–0 lead, but Carolina quickly took control with five consecutive goals — two from Chloe Humphrey, with scores also from Kate Levy, Caroline Godine and Marissa White, with Ashley Humphrey notching three assists.

Northwestern’s Taylor Lapointe scored with 6:54 left in the first half to cut Carolina’s halftime lead to 5–2.

Like in the first half, Northwestern scored first in the second half, this time on a goal by Sam Smith. The Tar Heels responded with scores from Chloe Humphey and Oliva Vergano before Northwestern’s Lucy Munro cut UNC’s lead down to three.

There was no scoring for 13 minutes before Eliza Osburn scored twice in nine seconds and Vergano added a goal 39 seconds later to give UNC a 10–4 lead. Another Chloe Humphey goal after Munro scored again for Northwestern made it 11–5.

The teams traded goals in the last six minutes, with Northwestern’s Jane Hanson and Smith scoring and UNC getting a Kiley Mottice score. The Wildcats scored on a Smith goal with 1:53 left and an Aditi Foster score with 55 seconds left to trim UNC’s lead to four.

NOTES — UNC coach Jenny Levy tied Princeton’s Chris Sailer for the second-most all-time wins at 433. … Carolina is 46–22 in 25 NCAA tournaments, previously winning NCAA titles in 2013, 2016 and 2022. The Tar Heels were 22–0 in 2022. … Two of Northwestern’s three losses came against UNC, which beat the Wildcats 15–12 in Evanston, Ill., on March 27.