CARY, N.C. - No. 2 North Carolina is back where it so often seems to end up: playing for an ACC Tournament title.
For the 30th time in program history, the Tar Heels will take the field in the championship match, this time against No. 10 Virginia in the 2026 Ally ACC Women’s Soccer Championship Final on Sunday afternoon. The final is set for noon, with streaming available on ESPNU.
UNC earned its spot in the title game by slipping past No. 12 Duke, 1-0, in Thursday’s semifinal.
Bella Devey delivered the difference, scoring her 17th goal of the season and her seventh game-winner. The ACC Offensive Player of the Year now has a chance to help push Carolina to its 23rd conference title.
Virginia stands in the way, and the matchup brings plenty of familiarity. The teams will meet for the second time this season and the 53rd time overall. Carolina handled the Cavaliers, 3-1, earlier this year in Charlottesville, when Devey scored twice and Summer Denigan added a penalty kick goal.
Sunday’s final will be the fifth ACC championship meeting between the programs. North Carolina has won three of the previous four title-game clashes, and the last time the Tar Heels captured the conference crown was in 2019 against Virginia. Neither program has won the championship since then.
The numbers around this Carolina team tell the story of why it is back in the final. The Tar Heels went 8-1 in ACC play to finish second in the regular season with 24 points and entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed. They also lead the ACC with 51 total goals and have outscored opponents 52-13 overall.
UNC closed the regular season with a 3-2 road win over No. 24 Louisville, a game in which Hope Munson recorded her first career hat trick. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 2 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Poll.
Devey has been the headliner all season, leading the team with 17 goals and ranking first in the ACC in total goals. She has also earned ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors three times and was named to the Preseason All-ACC Team. Summer Denigan and Devey were both placed on the MAC Hermann Mid-Season Watch List.
UNC’s supporting cast has been busy, too. Lilliah Blum scored her first career brace against Duke and now has five goals this season.
She leads the Tar Heels with six assists and was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week and TopDrawerSoccer Team of the Week on Sept. 22.
Peyton Trayer has posted 12 wins, 23 saves and four clean sheets, and she picked up ACC Freshman and Goalkeeper of the Week honors on Oct. 27.
Izzi Stratton was named ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Week the same day.
The accolades have piled up across the roster. Cali O’Neill was named ACC Freshman of the Year and earned ACC Defensive Player of the Week on Oct.
- Carolina collected eight All-ACC selections: Hope Munson and Bella Devey on the first team; Aven Alvarez on the second team; Lilliah Blum and Ashley Pennie on the third team; and Scottie Antonucci, Amari Manning and Cali O’Neill on the freshman team.
UNC also placed four players in the Midseason TopDrawerSoccer Top 100 Rankings: Devey at No. 2, Blum at No.
19, Denigan at No. 29 and Pennie at No. 32.
Three Tar Heels showed up in the Midseason TopDrawerSoccer Top 100 Freshmen Rankings, with O’Neill at No. 1, Manning at No. 22 and Antonucci at No.
The preseason recognition was just as deep. Denigan, Stratton and O’Neill were named to the Preseason TopDrawerSoccer Best XI Teams, while the Tar Heels were picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll.
North Carolina’s reach has extended beyond the college game, too. Aven Alvarez, Hope Munson and Sealey Strawn were named to the U-20 WNT roster for the 2026 U-20 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and all three helped the national team advance to the round of 16.
In Other News...
Michael Malone Sends Early Warning After UNCs Costly Collapse
Michael Malone did not sugarcoat UNCs loss to Georgia, using the setback as an early-season lesson in how small lapses can snowball. The Tar Heels coach pointed to a lack of attention to detail, game-plan discipline and personnel discipline as the biggest reasons things slipped away, and he singled out missed free-throw box-outs, shaky defensive adjustments to perimeter shooters and missed high-percentage looks as the kinds of mistakes that can turn a winnable game into a costly one.
For a team still trying to establish its identity, the message was less about one bad night than about the habits that have to hold up when the margin gets thin. Malone stressed accountability and the need to build better routines before those breakdowns become a pattern, which makes the next stretch of games especially important as UNC tries to show it can respond the right way. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Is One Win From A Title After A Run Nobody Saw Coming
No. 12 North Carolinas mens soccer team has turned the ACC tournament into an unexpected late-season surge, and now the Tar Heels are one win from a title. After knocking off Cal, No. 3 Clemson and NC State to reach the final, UNC will meet No. 1 SMU at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., with a championship on the line in a bracket few outside the program likely saw unfolding this way.
The run has been built on a group effort, with Joschi Schelb, Luca Nikolai, Ryan Zellefrow, Bertil Rygaard Hansen and Alan Rutkowski all helping push the Tar Heels through a demanding path. SMU arrives with its own momentum after victories over Virginia and Syracuse, setting up a final that asks whether UNC can finish off a surprise march with the kind of result that would make the whole tournament feel even bigger in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs First Loss Leaves Fans Debating A Familiar Problem
Georgias 78-70 win at the Smith Center did more than snap North Carolinas 21-game home winning streak. It also left the Tar Heels with an all-too-familiar conversation on their hands, because the game followed a pattern fans have seen before: a sluggish start, a long chase, and too many missed chances when the outcome was still in reach. North Carolina dug in after halftime and made the game competitive again, but the early damage from a 25 percent first half was hard to fully erase.
Georgia closed the night on a 10-2 run, turning a tight finish into a frustrating first loss at home for the Tar Heels. Kanon Catchings set the tone for the visitors with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while North Carolina came up empty on key shots down the stretch. For a team still trying to establish consistency, the bigger concern may be how quickly the same issues can resurface when the margin for error gets thin. [Read more 🡒]