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Wide receiver Josh Downs will continue his football career with the Indianapolis Colts, who took him Friday with the 16th pick of the third round and the 79th overall selection at the NFL Draft in Kansas City, becoming the 10th Carolina player drafted in the last three years. That’s the highest a UNC wide receiver has gone since Greg Little was the 27th second-round pick and 57th overall selection of the Cleveland Browns in 2010. Downs was the ninth ACC player selected.
North Carolina hasn’t replicated its dominant previous two women’s lacrosse seasons. But the young Tar Heels are putting it together at the right time and are a win away from their seventh consecutive ACC title. No. 6-ranked and No. 3-seed UNC scored the first eight goals and rolled to a 15–9 upset of No. 2-ranked and No. 2-seed Syracuse on Friday in the semifinals of the ACC tournament at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte.
Needing to build momentum to solidify its NCAA tournament resume, North Carolina’s bats instead went silent with runners on base. Two Virginia Tech pitchers held the Tar Heels to a season-low five hits, and the Hokies rolled to a 7–0 victory Friday in the three-game ACC weekend series opener.
Coach Courtney Banghart’s fifth North Carolina team will be her deepest and most talented. That will create plenty of competition for playing time and many more options at her disposal — with the transfer portal still packed with available players.
Puff Johnson will continue his college career at Penn State. Johnson, who will be a senior, also got interest from several schools, including Kentucky, Indiana, Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma and Butler, visiting the latter.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina got just the sort of feel-good win it needed to flush away a frustrating weekend with an offensive assault against UNCW. With a pair of three-run homers and the most RBI by a Tar Heel in 19 years, Mac Horvath drove home a point in more ways than one.
Two individual national champions — wrestler Austin O’Connor and diver Aranza Vazquez — earned Athlete of the Year honors at the Rammy Awards on Monday night at Memorial Hall. The awards program recognizes excellence in Carolina athletics over the previous year. Women’s basketball center Malu Tshitenge of women’s basketball and football defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker were the hosts for the event, which was back at Memorial Hall for the first time since 2019.
Coach Courtney Banghart picked up another significant transfer on Monday when former Iowa State guard Lexi Donarski, a former five-star recruit, picked the Tar Heels. The Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year last season with 32 steals is ranked as the No. 4 player in the portal by 247 Sports and she is considered the best shooter in the portal. She played three seasons with the Cyclones and has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
CHAPEL HILL — Getting swept in a late April ACC series is discouraging for No. 18 North Carolina, but the memory of last season gives the Tar Heels hope that they can still achieve plenty this season. No. 20 Boston College rallied for a 6–2 victory Sunday at Boshamer Stadium to finish off a sweep of the Tar Heels a year after UNC got swept at Virginia for its fifth consecutive conference series loss.
CHAPEL HILL — On a night when No. 18 Carolina finally got the sort of excellent outing from a starting pitcher that the Tar Heels have lacked lately, a bullpen that recently has been reliable quickly wasted it. To make it worse for UNC, it continued recent failures with the bases loaded only to see No. 20 Boston College produce in that situation.
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