Category: Other sports

Hot Heels thump Hokies, earn berth in semifinals

It doesn’t seem to matter who the red-hot Carolina baseball team faces, the Tar Heels are going to take care of business. And they’re doing it convincingly and got one of the best pitching performances by a Tar Heel in recent memory on Friday. Against Virginia Tech, the No. 2-ranked team in the country, UNC poured on the offense early with four home runs in the first four innings and rolled to a 10–0 Friday win in Charlotte to earn a trip to the ACC Tournament semifinals.

Historic rally from 8 down puts UNC in its first women’s lacrosse final since 2016

Put this one in the Carolina sports history books alongside the 1974 men’s basketball rally from eight points down with 17 seconds left against Duke. In one of the most amazing comebacks in UNC sports history, the unbeaten No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seed Tar Heels erased an eight-goal third-quarter deficit to take an incredible 15–14 victory over No. 4-seed Northwestern in the NCAA women’s lacrosse national semifinals Friday at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field in Baltimore.

UNC softball player follows teammate in making history as a baseball coach

North Carolina softball player Kianna Jones is making history in the Coastal Plain League, an amateur wooden-bat league. Jones, who started 50 games as a redshirt sophomore last season for the Tar Heels, will be the first woman coach in league history as a bench coach overseeing baseball analytics and coaching the bases for the Macon Bacon. She isn’t the first member of UNC’s softball team to be a groundbreaker.

After following similar path to women’s lacrosse Final Four, UNC ready to flip the script

he similarities to last season continue for a Carolina women’s lacrosse team that’s ready to flip the script. Just like last season, the Tar Heels beat Stony Brook to enter the Final Four undefeated, No. 1-ranked and No. 1 seeded, taking a 20-game unbeaten streak into a national semifinal against a team they defeated handily at home. In both cases, that earlier win was on March 6. A year ago, Boston College, which UNC blew out 21–9 in March, ousted the Tar Heels 11–10 in the semifinals on its way to a national championship. A year later, to the day, of that early-season win over BC, Carolina rolled over Northwestern by a similar score of 20–9.

UNC takes plenty of momentum into postseason after 11–0 win, sweep of FSU

CHAPEL HILL — The expectations are suddenly rocketing up for a Carolina baseball team that is putting it all together at the right time. From Angel Zarate’s first-pitch home run in the first inning, the Tar Heels were in command, combining timely hitting, productive outs, solid defense and good pitching to earn an 11–0 senior-day victory Saturday over Florida State at Boshamer Stadium for their first ACC shutout of the season.

UNC continue post-exam surge to NCAA berth with romp, third straight ACC series win

CHAPEL HILL — If you are going to battle North Carolina’s baseball team, it’s best to do it before the exam break. The Tar Heels, for the second straight season, have gone from a team unlikely to make the NCAA tournament field before exams to earning high marks with the selection committee. After losing five consecutive ACC series before the break, the Tar Heels defeated Florida State 10–4 on Friday night to clinch their third successive league series and put them in a good position for a postseason berth.

No. 1 UNC rallies by Stony Brook again to earn 13th Final Four berth

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina is back in the women’s lacrosse Final Four but, for the second consecutive season, Stony Brook and its vexing zone defense didn’t make it easy. Just like in last year’s quarterfinals, the undefeated, No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Tar Heels (20–0) had to rally against the Seawolves to keep their season alive. UNC rebounded from the lowest-scoring half of the season (three first-half goals) and used a four-goal second-half run to advance Thursday at Dorrance Field. The Tar Heels’ 8–5 NCAA tournament quarterfinal victory over the No. 7-ranked Seawolves (16–3) was their 33rd consecutive home win.

Unbeaten UNC has been here before but is in different place

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina women’s lacrosse stars have been here before — undefeated, top-ranked, No. 1 seed and in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. The Tar Heels (18–0) are in the same situation as a year ago, facing Stony Brook at Dorrance Field with a Final Four berth on the line. But five-time All-America attacker Jamie Ortega says that they are in a different place as they prepare to play the No. 8-ranked Seawolves (16–2) at 7:30 Thursday night (ESPNU).

Top-ranked UNC dominates Virginia in record-setting NCAA women’s lacrosse victory

CHAPEL HILL — What does domination look like? That was on display as North Carolina’s top-ranked and No. 1-seed women’s lacrosse team overwhelmed No. 15-ranked Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament. After falling behind in their last two ACC Tournament games, the unbeaten Tar Heels, who got a first-round bye, took charge early Sunday and left little doubt. Carolina scored the game’s first 13 goals and the last 11, dominating draws early in a 24–2 victory at Dorrance Field behind senior attacker Jamie Ortega’s four goals and five assists. That was the most goals in an NCAA tournament game in program history.