GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – North Carolina will play host to Wake Forest this Friday in the Atlantic Coast Conference Field Hockey Automatic Qualifier Game.

Game time at Karen Shelton Stadium is set for 1 p.m., and the winner will receive the ACC’s automatic berth in the upcoming NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship.

UNC (14-1 heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale at Syracuse) earned the right to host this Friday’s game by virtue of capturing its fourth straight ACC Field Hockey Championship tournament last fall.

Wake Forest (6-10) finished tied with Boston College for second place behind the Tar Heels in the 2021 spring standings. Both the Demon Deacons and Eagles finished 3-2 in ACC play this spring, but Wake earned the tie-breaker by virtue of its 3-0 win in the teams’ head-to-head conference meeting on March 6.

The two-time defending NCAA champion Tar Heels and Demon Deacons will be meeting for the fourth time this season. UNC claimed 3-1 and 5-0 wins during the fall and won by a 2-0 score in the most recent game between the teams on March 13 in Winston-Salem.

Mike Corey is set to handle the play-by-play call for ACC Network in this Friday’s AQ matchup and will be joined by veteran analyst Leah Secondo.

This year’s NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championships will feature a 12-team field (instead of the usual 16 teams), consisting of nine automatic qualifiers and two at-large selections. The complete bracket will be released at 10 p.m. ET next Saturday (April 24) on ncaa.com.

UNC’s Karen Shelton Stadium is also slated to be the host venue for the NCAA semifinals and finals on May 7 and May 9.