Carolina field hockey is heading into a split weekend with a pair of commonwealth opponents on deck, opening at home against No. 20 Old Dominion on Friday before going on the road to Richmond on Sunday.
The Tar Heels and Monarchs are meeting in one of the sport’s most decorated series. Old Dominion owned the early edge with dominant stretches in the 1980s and 1990s, but North Carolina flipped the balance with a three-peat from 1995 through 1997. UNC’s 2020 national title leveled the all-time count at nine wins apiece, and the Tar Heels’ 2022 and 2023 championships pushed them two ahead of their longtime rival.
Sunday’s matchup with Richmond is a much newer wrinkle. It will be only the ninth all-time meeting between the Tar Heels and the Spiders, who last played in 2025 and had previously met in the NCAA Tournament in 2004.
North Carolina enters the weekend at 2-2 overall and 0-0 in the ACC under head coach Erin Matson, who is 61-8 at UNC. The Tar Heels are 3-0 all-time against Old Dominion and 1-0 against Richmond. Old Dominion comes in at 3-1 overall under Andrew Griffiths, who is 142-97 at the school, while Richmond is also 3-1 under Martu Loncarica, whose record there is 26-17.
After a rough opening weekend, Carolina steadied itself in week two with a pair of high-end wins over Penn and No. 2 Princeton.
Friday against Penn, the Tar Heels rolled to a 7-0 win, with Charly Bruder and Sofia Ferri each scoring twice. It marked the fourth time UNC has scored seven or more goals under Matson.
Sunday brought the bigger spotlight. Against No.
2 Princeton on ACC Network, the Heels were pushed all the way through regulation and overtime without a goal on either side. Merritt Skubisz kept Carolina alive in goal, and the game moved to shootouts.
Coco Courtright, Reese Anetsberger, and Ferri all converted their attempts to seal the win.
Those performances were enough to sweep the ACC’s weekly awards on September 8. Ferri was named the offensive player of the week after scoring twice against Penn and delivering the deciding shootout goal against Princeton.
Skubisz earned the defensive honor after posting shutouts in both games across more than 135 minutes and turning away Princeton’s first three shootout attempts. Her full-extension stick save just before halftime against the Tigers was singled out as the play of the season so far.
Friday’s game also puts the spotlight on Karen Shelton Stadium, which opened on August 25, 2018 and has quickly become a major home stage for the Tar Heels. The facility is named for the Hall of Fame coach who led the program for 42 seasons, and it stands as the only UNC athletic playing facility named after a woman. It was also just the second time in school history that an individual coached in a facility named for themselves.
The stadium has already hosted plenty of postseason moments, including the 2018 ACC Championship and the 2020 and 2023 NCAA Championships, all three of which Carolina won. It took more than three years and 42 games before UNC suffered its first loss there, falling to Liberty on Oct. 10, 2021.
In Other News...
UNCs ACC Opener Just Took A Sudden Turn At Quarterback
Clemsons quarterback picture changed quickly this week after Christopher Vizzina suffered an elbow injury against Georgia Southern and was labeled week-to-week. For North Carolina, that means the ACC opener has picked up an extra layer of uncertainty before the Tar Heels even take the field, with freshman Tait Reynolds now expected to make his first career start.
Dabo Swinney said Reynolds showed promise in relief, but he also made it clear Clemson plans to lean on both quarterbacks moving forward. For UNC, the adjustment is less about the name on the depth chart than the timing of the change, because preparing for a first-time starter in a conference game can alter everything from pressure plans to coverage looks. [Read more 🡒]
UNC May Have A New Passing Weapon Before Clemson
UNC has spent the first two weeks grinding through ugly weather and finding out a lot about itself in the process. The Tar Heels have won both games in rain-soaked conditions, given up only 13 points across eight quarters and shown a defense that has looked sharper on third downs, while the offense has had to make the most of limited possessions and has still managed to stay efficient.
One of the quieter developments has been the emergence of freshman CJ Sadler in the passing game. He has already started to carve out a real role, sharing targets with the rest of the receiver group and giving the Tar Heels another option to feature as the schedule stiffens. With Clemson next, UNC may be looking at a new kind of threat to keep defenses honest, even if the full extent of that role is still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Just Got An Opening It Cannot Waste Against Clemson
Clemsons offense is headed into its next meeting with North Carolina with a different face under center, after starting quarterback Christopher Vizzina suffered an elbow injury and is expected to miss the game. Freshman Tait Reynolds is projected to make the start in his place, giving the Tar Heels a chance to line up against a much less familiar look than the one Clemson had planned to feature.
For UNC, the timing matters because Clemson has already spent much of the early season looking out of sync, and a quarterback switch only adds to the uncertainty. The Tar Heels do not need to solve every issue for the Tigers to gain an edge here, but they do need to treat this as an opportunity to pressure a young passer and make Clemson play from behind the curve. [Read more 🡒]